The participation of Italy in the Second World War was characterized by a complex framework of ideology, politics, and diplomacy, while its military actions were often heavily influenced by external factors.

The imperial ambitions of the Fascist regime, which aspired to restore the Roman Empire in North Africa and the Mediterranean (the Mare Nostrum, or the Italian Empire), were partially met by late 1942. By this point Italian influence extended throughout the Mediterranean. Libya had been pacified under the fascists and was undergoing Italian settlement. A friendly Fascist regime had been installed inSpain, and a puppet regime installed in Croatia following the German-Italian Invasion of Yugoslavia. Albania, Ljubljana, coastal Dalmatia, and Montenegro had been directly annexed into the Italian state. Most of Greece had been occupied by Italy following the Greco-Italian War and Battle of Greece, as had the French territories of Corsica and Tunisia following Vichy France's collapse and Case Anton. Finally, Italo-German forces had achieved large victories against insurgents in Yugoslavia and had occupied parts of British-held Egypt on their push to El-Alamein after their victory at Gazala, however Italy's conquests were always heavily contested, both by various insurgencies (most prominently the Greek resistance and Yugoslav partisans) and Allied military forces, which waged the Battle of the Mediterranean throughout and beyond Italy's participation.

During the late 1920s, the Italian Prime MinisterBenito Mussolini spoke with increasing urgency about imperial expansion, arguing that Italy needed an outlet for its "surplus population" and that it would therefore be in the best interests of other countries to aid in this expansion.[2] The immediate aspiration of the regime was political "hegemony in the Mediterranean–Danubian–Balkan region", more grandiosely Mussolini imagined the conquest "of an empire stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Strait of Hormuz".[3] Balkan and Mediterranean hegemony was predicated by ancient Roman dominance in the same regions. There were designs for a protectorate over Albania and for the annexation of Dalmatia, as well as economic and military control of Yugoslavia and Greece. The regime also sought to establish protective patron–client relationships with Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, which all lay on the outside edges of its European sphere of influence.[4] Although it was not among his publicly proclaimed aims, Mussolini wished to challenge the supremacy of Britain and France in the Mediterranean Sea, which was considered strategically vital, since the Mediterranean was Italy's only conduit to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.[2]

In 1935, Italy initiated the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, "a nineteenth-century colonial campaign waged out of due time", the campaign gave rise to optimistic talk on raising a native Ethiopian army "to help conquer" Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The war also marked a shift towards a more aggressive Italian foreign policy and also "exposed [the] vulnerabilities" of the British and French, this in turn created the opportunity Mussolini needed to begin to realize his imperial goals.[5][6] In 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out, from the beginning, Italy played an important role in the conflict. Their military contribution was so vast, that it played a decisive role in the victory of the rebel forces led by Francisco Franco.[7] Mussolini had engaged in "a full-scale external war" due to the insinuation of future Spanish subservience to the Italian Empire, and as a way of placing the country on a war footing and creating "a warrior culture",[8] the aftermath of the war in Ethiopia saw a reconciliation of German-Italian relations following years of a previously strained relationship, resulting in the signing of a treaty of mutual interest in October 1936. Mussolini referred to this treaty as the creation of a Berlin-Rome Axis, which Europe would revolve around, the treaty was the result of increasing dependence on German coal following League of Nations sanctions, similar policies between the two countries over the conflict in Spain, and German sympathy towards Italy following European backlash to the Ethiopian War. The aftermath of the treaty saw the increasing ties between Italy and Germany, and Mussolini falling under Adolf Hitler's influence from which "he never escaped".[9][10][11]

Beginning in 1939 Mussolini often voiced his contention that Italy required uncontested access to the world's oceans and shipping lanes to ensure its national sovereignty,[15] on 4 February 1939, Mussolini addressed the Grand Council in a closed session. He delivered a long speech on international affairs and the goals of his foreign policy, "which bears comparison with Hitler's notorious disposition, minuted by colonel Hossbach", he began by claiming that the freedom of a country is proportional to the strength of its navy. This was followed by "the familiar lament that Italy was a prisoner in the Mediterranean",[a] he called Corsica, Tunisia, Malta, and Cyprus "the bars of this prison", and described Gibraltar and Suez as the prison guards.[17][18] To break British control, her bases on Cyprus, Gibraltar, Malta, and in Egypt (controlling the Suez Canal) would have to be neutralized, on 31 March, Mussolini stated that "Italy will not truly be an independent nation so long as she has Corsica, Bizerta, Malta as the bars of her Mediterranean prison and Gibraltar and Suez as the walls." Fascist foreign policy took for granted that the democracies—Britain and France—would someday need to be faced down.[19][20][15] Through armed conquest Italian North Africa and Italian East Africa—separated by the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan—would be linked,[21] and the Mediterranean prison destroyed. Then, Italy would be able to march "either to the Indian Ocean through the Sudan and Abyssinia, or to the Atlantic by way of French North Africa".[14]

As early as September 1938, the Italian military had drawn up plans to invade Albania, on 7 April, Italian forces landed in the country and within three days had occupied the majority of the country. Albania represented a territory Italy could acquire for "'living space' to ease its overpopulation" as well as the foothold needed to launch other expansionist conflicts in the Balkans,[22] on 22 May 1939, Italy and Germany signed the Pact of Steel joining both countries in a military alliance. The pact was the culmination of German-Italian relations from 1936 and was not defensive in nature.[23] Rather, the pact was designed for a "joint war against France and Britain", although the Italian hierarchy held the understanding that such a war would not take place for several years.[24] However, despite the Italian impression, the pact made no reference to such a period of peace and the Germans proceeded with their plans to invade Poland.[25]

Mussolini's Under-Secretary for War Production, Carlo Favagrossa, had estimated that Italy could not possibly be prepared for major military operations until at least October 1942. This had been made clear during the Italo-German negotiations for the Pact of Steel, whereby it was stipulated that neither signatory was to make war without the other earlier than 1943,[26] although considered a great power, the Italian industrial sector was relatively weak compared to other European major powers. Italian industry did not equal more than 15% of that of France or of Britain in militarily critical areas such as automobile production: the number of automobiles in Italy before the war was around 374,000, in comparison to around 2,500,000 in Britain and France, the lack of a stronger automotive industry made it difficult for Italy to mechanize its military. Italy still had a predominantly agricultural-based economy, with demographics more akin to a developing country (high illiteracy, poverty, rapid population growth and a high proportion of adolescents) and a proportion of GNP derived from industry less than that of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Sweden, in addition to the other great powers.[27] In terms of strategic materials, in 1940, Italy produced 4.4 megatonnes (Mt) of coal, 0.01 Mt of crude oil, 1.2 Mt of iron ore and 2.1 Mt of steel. By comparison, Great Britain produced 224.3 Mt of coal, 11.9 Mt of crude oil, 17.7 Mt of iron ore, and 13.0 Mt of steel and Germany produced 364.8 Mt of coal, 8.0 Mt of crude oil, 29.5 Mt of iron ore and 21.5 Mt of steel.[28] Most raw material needs could be fulfilled only through importation, and no effort was made to stockpile key materials before the entry into war. Approximately one quarter of the ships of Italy's merchant fleet were in foreign ports at the outbreak of hostilities, and, given no forewarning, were immediately impounded.[29][30]

Between 1936 and 1939, Italy had supplied the Spanish "Nationalist" forces, fighting under Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, with large number of weapons and supplies practically free.[31][32] In addition to weapons, the Corpo Truppe Volontarie ("Corps of Volunteer Troops") had also been dispatched to fight for Franco, the financial cost of the war was between 6 and 8.5 billion lire, approximately 14 to 20 per cent of the country's annual expenditure.[32] Adding to these problems was Italy's extreme debt position. When Benito Mussolini took office, in 1921, the government debt was 93 billion lire, un-repayable in the short to medium term. Only two years later this debt had increased to 405 billion lire.[33]

German coal entering Italy through the Brenner Pass. The issue of Italian coal was prominent in diplomatic circles in the spring of 1940.

In September 1939, Britain imposed a selective blockade of Italy. Coal from Germany, which was shipped out of Rotterdam, was declared contraband, the Germans promised to keep up shipments by train, over the Alps, and Britain offered to supply all of Italy's needs in exchange for Italian armaments. The Italians could not agree to the latter terms without shattering their alliance with Germany,[34] on 2 February 1940, however, Mussolini approved a draft contract with the Royal Air Force to provide 400 Caproni aircraft; yet he scrapped the deal on 8 February. British intelligence officer, Francis Rodd, believed that Mussolini was convinced to reverse policy by German pressure in the week of 2–8 February, a view shared by the British ambassador in Rome, Percy Loraine,[35] on 1 March, the British announced that they would block all coal exports from Rotterdam to Italy.[34][35] Italian coal was one of the most discussed issues in diplomatic circles in the spring of 1940; in April Britain began strengthening their Mediterranean Fleet to enforce the blockade. Despite French uncertainty, Britain rejected concessions to Italy so as not to "create an impression of weakness".[36] Germany supplied Italy with about one million tons of coal a month beginning in the spring of 1940, an amount that even exceeded Mussolini's demand of August 1939 that Italy receive six million tons of coal for its first twelve months of war.[37]

The Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito) was comparatively depleted and weak at the commencement of the war. Italian tanks were of poor quality and radios few in number, the bulk of Italian artillery dated to World War I. The primary fighter of the Italian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) was the Fiat CR.42, which, though an advanced biplane, with excellent performance, was obsolete against monoplane fighters of other nations.[38] Of the Regia Aeronautica's approximately 1,760 aircraft, only 900 could be considered in any way combat-worthy, the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) had several modern battleships but no aircraft carriers.[39]

Italian authorities were acutely aware of the need to modernize and were taking steps to meet the requirements of their own relatively advanced tactical principles.[nb 1][nb 2][42][43] Almost 40% of the 1939 budget was allocated for military spending.[44] Recognizing the Navy's need for close air support, the decision was made to build carriers.[nb 3] Three series of modern fighters[nb 4], capable of meeting the best allied planes on equal terms,[46][nb 5] were in development, with a few hundred of each eventually being produced, the Carro Armato P40 tank,[47] roughly equivalent to the M4 Sherman and Panzer IV medium tanks, was designed in 1940 (though no prototype was produced until 1942 and manufacture was not able to begin before the Armistice, [nb 6] owing in part to the lack of sufficiently powerful engines, which were themselves undergoing a development push; total Italian tank production for the war – about 3,500 – was less than the number of tanks used by Germany in its invasion of France). The Italians were pioneers in the use of self-propelled guns,[50][51] both in close support and anti-tank roles, their 75/46 fixed AA/AT gun, 75/32 gun, 90/53 AA/AT gun (an equally deadly but less famous peer of the German 88/55), 47/32 AT gun, and the 20 mm AA autocannon were effective, modern weapons.[43][52] Also of note were the AB 41 and the Camionetta AS 42 armoured cars, which were regarded as excellent vehicles of their type.[citation needed][53] None of these developments, however, precluded the fact that the bulk of equipment was obsolete and poor.[citation needed] The relatively weak economy, lack of suitable raw materials and consequent inability to produce suitable quantities of armaments and supplies were therefore the key material reasons for Italian military failure.[54]

On paper Italy had one of the world's largest armies,[55] but the reality was the opposite. According to the estimates of Bierman and Smith, the Italian regular army could field only about 200,000 troops at the war's beginning.[39] Irrespective of the attempts to modernize, the majority of Italian army personnel were lightly armed infantry lacking sufficient motor transport.[nb 7] There was insufficient budget to train the men in the services, such that the bulk of personnel received much of their training at the front, when it was too late to be of use.[56] Air units had not been trained to operate with the naval fleet and the majority of ships had been built for fleet actions, rather than the convoy protection duties in which they were primarily employed during the war;[57] in any event, a critical lack of fuel kept naval activities to a minimum.[58]

Senior leadership was also a problem. Mussolini personally assumed control of all three individual military service ministries with the intention of influencing detailed planning.[59]Comando Supremo (the Italian High Command) consisted of only a small complement of staff that could do little more than inform the individual service commands of Mussolini's intentions, after which it was up to the individual service commands to develop proper plans and execution.[60] The result was that there was no central direction for operations; the three military services tended to work independently, focusing only on their fields, with little inter-service cooperation.[60][61] Discrepancies in pay existed for personnel who were of equal rank, but from different units.

Following the German conquest of Poland, Mussolini hesitated to enter the war, the Britishcommander for land forces in the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean, General Sir Archibald Wavell, correctly predicted that Mussolini's pride would ultimately cause him to enter the war. Wavell would compare Mussolini's situation to that of someone at the top of a diving board: "I think he must do something. If he cannot make a graceful dive, he will at least have to jump in somehow; he can hardly put on his dressing-gown and walk down the stairs again."[62]

Initially, the entry into the war appeared to be political opportunism (though there was some provocation),[nb 8] which led to a lack of consistency in planning, with principal objectives and enemies being changed with little regard for the consequences.[67] Mussolini was well aware of the military and material deficiencies but thought the war would be over soon and did not expect to do much fighting.

In June 1940, after initial success, the Italian offensive into southern France stalled at the fortified Alpine Line, on 24 June 1940, France surrendered to Germany. Italy occupied a swathe of French territory along the Franco-Italian border, during this operation, Italian casualties amounted to 1,247 men dead or missing and 2,631 wounded. A further 2,151 Italians were hospitalised due to frostbite.

In November 1942, the Italian Royal Army occupied south-eastern Vichy France and Corsica as part of Case Anton, from December 1942, Italian military government of French departments east of the Rhône River was established, and continued until September 1943, when Italy quit the war. This had the effect of providing a de facto temporary haven for French Jews fleeing the Holocaust; in January 1943 the Italians refused to cooperate with the Nazis in rounding up Jews living in the occupied zone of France under their control and in March prevented the Nazis from deporting Jews in their zone. German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop complained to Mussolini that "Italian military circles... lack a proper understanding of the Jewish question."[70]

The Italians fared poorly in North Africa almost from the beginning. Within a week of Italy's declaration of war on 10 June 1940, the British 11th Hussars had seized Fort Capuzzo in Libya; in an ambush east of Bardia, the British captured the Italian 10th Army Engineer-in-Chief, General Lastucci. On 28 June Marshal Italo Balbo, the Governor-General of Libya, was killed by friendly fire while landing in Tobruk. Mussolini ordered Balbo's replacement, General Rodolfo Graziani, to launch an attack into Egypt immediately. Graziani complained to Mussolini that his forces were not properly equipped for such an operation, and that an attack into Egypt could not possibly succeed; nevertheless, Mussolini ordered him to proceed.[citation needed] On 13 September, elements of the 10th Army retook Fort Capuzzo and crossed the border into Egypt. Lightly opposed, they advanced about 100 km (62 mi) to Sidi Barrani, where they stopped and began entrenching themselves in a series of fortified camps.

At this time, the British had only 36,000 troops available (out of about 100,000 under Middle Eastern command) to defend Egypt, against 236,000 Italian troops,[71] the Italians, however, were not concentrated in one location. They were divided between the 5th army in the west and the 10th army in the east and thus spread out from the Tunisian border in western Libya to Sidi Barrani in Egypt, at Sidi Barrani, Graziani, unaware of the British lack of numerical strength,[nb 9] planned to build fortifications and stock them with provisions, ammunition, and fuel, establish a water pipeline, and extend the via Balbia to that location, which was where the road to Alexandria began.[73] This task was being obstructed by British Royal Navy attacks on Italian supply ships in the Mediterranean, at this stage Italian losses remained minimal, but the efficiency of the British Royal Navy would improve as the war went on. Mussolini was fiercely disappointed with Graziani's sluggishness. However, according to Bauer[73] he had only himself to blame, as he had withheld the trucks, armaments, and supplies that Graziani had deemed necessary for success. Wavell was hoping to see the Italians overextend themselves before his intended counter at Marsa Matruh.[73]

Graziani and his staff lacked faith in the strength of the Italian military.[citation needed] One of his officers wrote: "We're trying to fight this... as though it were a colonial war... this is a European war... fought with European weapons against a European enemy. We take too little account of this in building our stone forts.... We are not fighting the Ethiopians now."[74](This was a reference to the Second Italo-Abyssinian War where Italian forces had fought against a relatively poorly equipped opponent.) Balbo had said "Our light tanks, already old and armed only with machine guns, are completely out-classed. The machine guns of the British armoured cars pepper them with bullets which easily pierce their armour."[73]

Italian forces around Sidi Barrani had severe weaknesses in their deployment, their five main fortifications were placed too far apart to allow mutual support against an attacking force, and the areas between were weakly patrolled. The absence of motorised transport did not allow for rapid reorganisation, if needed, the rocky terrain had prevented an anti-tank ditch from being dug and there were too few mines and 47 mm anti-tank guns to repel an armoured advance.[72] By the summer of 1941, the Italians in North Africa had regrouped, retrained and rearmed into a much more effective fighting force, one that proved to be much harder for the British to overcome in encounters from 1941 to 1943.[75]

On 8 December 1940, the British launched Operation Compass. Planned as an extended raid, it resulted in a force of British, Indian, and Australian troops cutting off the Italian 10th Army. Pressing the British advantage home, General Richard O'Connor succeeded in reaching El Agheila, deep in Libya (an advance of 500 miles (800 km)) and taking some 130,000 prisoners.[76] The Allies nearly destroyed the 10th Army, and seemed on the point of sweeping the Italians out of Libya altogether. Winston Churchill, however, directed the advance be stopped, initially because of supply problems and because of a new Italian offensive that had gained ground in Albania, and ordered troops dispatched to defend Greece. Weeks later the first troops of the German Afrika Korps started to arrive in North Africa (February 1941), along with six Italian divisions including the motorized Trento and armored Ariete.[77][78]

German General Erwin Rommel now became the principal Axis field commander in North Africa, although the bulk of his forces consisted of Italian troops. Though subordinate to the Italians, under Rommel's direction the Axis troops pushed the British and Commonwealth troops back into Egypt but were unable to complete the task because of the exhaustion and their extended supply lines which were under threat from the Allied enclave at Tobruk, which they failed to capture, after reorganising and re-grouping the Allies launched Operation Crusader in November 1941 which resulted in the Axis front line being pushed back once more to El Agheila by the end of the year.

In January 1942 the Axis struck back again, advancing to Gazala where the front lines stabilised while both sides raced to build up their strength, at the end of May, Rommel launched the Battle of Gazala where the British armoured divisions were soundly defeated. The Axis seemed on the verge of sweeping the British out of Egypt, but at the First Battle of El Alamein (July 1942) General Claude Auchinleck halted Rommel's advance only 90 mi (140 km) from Alexandria. Rommel made a final attempt to break through during the Battle of Alam el Halfa but Eighth Army, by this time commanded by Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, held firm. After a period of reinforcement and training the Allies assumed the offensive at the Second Battle of Alamein (October/November 1942) where they scored a decisive victory and the remains of Rommel's German-Italian Panzer Army were forced to engage in a fighting retreat for 1,600 mi (2,600 km) to the Libyan border with Tunisia.

After the Operation Torch landings in the Vichy French territories of Morocco and Algeria (November 1942) British, American and French forces advanced east to engage the German-Italian forces in the Tunisia Campaign. By February, the Axis forces in Tunisia were joined by Rommel's forces, after their long withdrawal from El Alamein, which were re-designated the Italian First Army (under Giovanni Messe) when Rommel left to command the Axis forces to the north at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass. Despite the Axis success at Kasserine, the Allies were able to reorganise (with all forces under the unified direction of 18th Army Group commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander) and regain the initiative in April, the Allies completed the defeat of the Axis armies in North Africa in May 1943.

As in Egypt, Italian forces (roughly 70,000 Italian soldiers and 180,000 native troops) outnumbered their British opponents. Italian East Africa, however, was isolated and far from the Italian mainland, leaving the forces there cut off from supply and thus severely limited in the operations they could undertake.

Initial Italian attacks in East Africa took two different directions, one into the Sudan and the other into Kenya. Then, in August 1940, the Italians advanced into British Somaliland, after suffering and inflicting few casualties, the British and Commonwealth garrison evacuated Somaliland, retreating by sea to Aden.

The Italian invasion of British Somaliland was one of the few successful Italian campaigns of World War II accomplished without German support. In the Sudan and Kenya, Italy captured small territories around several border villages, after which the Italian Royal Army in East Africa adopted a defensive posture in preparation for expected British counterattacks.

The Regia Marina maintained a small squadron in the Italian East Africa area, the "Red Sea Flotilla", consisting of seven destroyers and eight submarines, was based at the port of Massawa in Eritrea. Despite a severe shortage of fuel, the flotilla posed a threat to British convoys traversing the Red Sea. However, Italian attempts to attack British convoys resulted in the loss of four submarines and one destroyer.

Fought from February to March, the outcome of the Battle of Keren determined the fate of Italian East Africa; in early April, after Keren fell, Asmara and Massawa followed. The Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa also fell in April 1941, the Viceroy of Ethiopia, Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, surrendered at the stronghold of Amba Alagi in May. He received full military honours, the Italians in East Africa made a final stand around the town of Gondar in November 1941.

When the port of Massawa fell to the British, the remaining destroyers were ordered on final missions in the Red Sea, some of them achieving small successes before being scuttled or sunk, at the same time, the last four submarines made an epic voyage around the Cape of Good Hope to Bordeaux in France. Some Italians, after their defeat, waged a guerilla war mainly in Eritrea and Ethiopia, that lasted until fall 1943. Notable among them was Amedeo Guillet.

In early 1939, while the world was focused on Adolf Hitler's aggression against Czechoslovakia, Mussolini looked to the Kingdom of Albania, across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. Italian forces invaded Albania on 7 April 1939 and swiftly took control of the small country. Even before the invasion, Albania had been politically dominated by Italy; after the invasion it was formally made part of Italy and the Italian king took the Albanian crown. Along with the intervention in the Spanish Civil War and the invasion of Abyssinia, the invasion of Albania was part of the Italian contribution to the disintegration of the collective security the League of Nations instituted after World War I. As such, it was part of the prelude to World War II.

On 28 October 1940, Italy started the Greco-Italian War by launching an invasion of the Kingdom of Greece from Albania; in part, the Italians attacked Greece because of the growing influence of Germany in the Balkans. Both Yugoslavia and Greece had governments friendly to Germany. Mussolini launched the invasion of Greece in haste after the Kingdom of Romania, a state which he perceived as lying within the Italian sphere of influence, allied itself with Germany, the order to invade Greece was given by Mussolini to Badoglio and Army Chief of Staff Mario Roatta on 15 October, with the expectation that the attack would commence within 12 days. Badoglio and Roatta were appalled given that, acting on his orders, they had demobilised 600,000 men three weeks prior.[79] Given the expected requirement of at least 20 divisions to facilitate success, the fact that only eight divisions were currently in Albania, and the inadequacies of Albanian ports and connecting infrastructure, adequate preparation would require at least three months.[79] Nonetheless, D-day was set at dawn on 28 October.

The initial Italian offensive was quickly contained, and the invasion soon ended in an embarrassing stalemate. Taking advantage of Bulgaria's decision to remain neutral, the Greek Commander-in-Chief, Lt Gen Alexandros Papagos, was able to establish numerical superiority by mid-November,[nb 10] prior to launching a counter-offensive that drove the Italians back into Albania. In addition, the Greeks were naturally adept at operating in mountainous terrain, while only six of the Italian Army's divisions, the Alpini, were trained and equipped for mountain warfare. Only when the Italians were able to establish numerical parity was the Greek offensive stopped. By then they had been able to penetrate deep into Albania.

An Italian "Spring Offensive" in March 1941, which tried to salvage the situation prior to German intervention, amounted to little in terms of territorial gains, at this point, combat casualties amounted to over 102,000 for the Italians (with 13,700 dead and 3,900 missing) and fifty thousand sick; the Greek suffered over 90,000 combat casualties (including 14,000 killed and 5,000 missing) and an unknown number of sick.[82] While an embarrassment for the Italians, losses on this scale were devastating for the less numerous Greeks; additionally, the Greek Army had bled a significant amount of materiel. They were short on every area of equipment despite heavy infusion of British aid in February and March, with the army as a whole having only 1 month of artillery ammunition left by the start of April and insufficient arms and equipment to mobilize its reserves.[83] Hitler later stated in hindsight that Greece would have been defeated with or without German intervention, and that even at the time he was of the opinion that the Italians alone would have conquered Greece in the forthcoming season.[84]

After British troops arrived in Greece in March 1941, British bombers operating from Greek bases could reach the Romanian oil fields, vital to the German war effort. Hitler decided that a British presence in Greece presented a threat to Germany's rear and committed German troops to invade Greece via Yugoslavia (where a coup had deposed the German-friendly government), the Germans invaded on April 6 1941, smashing through the skeleton garrisons opposing them with little resistance while the Italians continued a slow advance in Albania and Epirus as the Greeks withdrew, with the country falling to the Axis by the end of the month. The Italian Army was still pinned down in Albania by the Greeks when the Germans began their invasion. Crucially, the bulk of the Greek Army (fifteen divisions out of twenty-one) was left facing the Italians in Albania and Epirus when the Germans intervened. Hitler commented that the Italians "had so weakened [Greece] that its collapse had already become inevitable", and credited them with having "engaged the greater part of the Greek Army."[85]

On 6 April 1941, the Wehrmacht invasions of Yugoslavia (Operation 25) and Greece (Operation Marita) both started. Together with the rapid advance of the German forces the Italians attacked Yugoslavia in Dalmatia and pushed the Greeks finally out of Albania, on 17 April, Yugoslavia surrendered to the Germans and the Italians. On 30 April, Greece too surrendered to the Germans and Italians, and was divided into German, Italian and Bulgarian sectors, the invasions ended with a complete Axis victory in May when Crete fell. On 3 May, during the triumphal parade in Athens to celebrate the Axis victory, Mussolini started to boast of an Italian Mare Nostrum in the Mediterranean sea.

Some 28 Italian divisions participated in the Balkan invasions, the coast of Yugoslavia was occupied by the Italian Army, while the rest of the country was divided between the Axis forces (a German and Italian puppet State of Croatia was created, under the nominal sovereignty of Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, but actually governed by the Croatian fascist Ante Pavelić). The Italians assumed control of most of Greece with their 11th Army, while the Bulgarians occupied the northern provinces and the Germans the strategically most important areas. Italian troops would occupy parts of Greece and Yugoslavia until the Italian armistice with the Allies in September 1943.

In spring 1941, Italy created a Montenegrin client state and annexed most of the Dalmatian coast as the Governorship of Dalmatia (Governatorato di Dalmazia). A complicated four-way conflict between the puppet Montenegro regime, Montenegrin nationalists, Royalist remnants of the Yugoslav government, and Communist Partisans continued from 1941 –1945.

In 1942 the Italian military commander in Croatia refused to hand over Jews in his zone to the Nazis.[70]

In 1940, the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) could not match the overall strength of the British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean Sea, after some initial setbacks, the Italian Navy declined to engage in a confrontation of capital ships. Since the British Navy had as a principal task the supply and protection of convoys supplying Britain's outposts in the Mediterranean, the mere continued existence of the Italian fleet (the so-called "fleet in being" concept) caused problems to Britain, which had to utilise warships sorely needed elsewhere to protect Mediterranean convoys. On 11 November, Britain launched the first carrier strike of the war, using a squadron of Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers, this raid at Taranto left three Italian battleships crippled or destroyed for the loss of two British aircraft shot down.

The Italian navy found other ways to attack the British, the most successful involved the use of frogmen and riding manned torpedoes to attack ships in harbour. The 10th Light Flotilla, also known as Decima Flottiglia MAS or Xª MAS, which carried out these attacks, sank or damaged 28 ships from September 1940 to the end of 1942, these included the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and Valiant (damaged in the harbour of Alexandria on 18 December 1941), and 111,527 long tons (113,317 t) of merchant shipping. The XMAS used a particular kind of torpedo, the SLC (Siluro a Lenta Corsa), whose crew was composed of two frogmen, and motorboats packed with explosives, called MTM (Motoscafo da Turismo Modificato).

Following the attacks on these two battleships, an Italian-dominated Mediterranean Sea appeared much more possible to achieve. However, this was only a brief happy time for Mussolini, the oil and supplies brought to Malta, despite heavy losses, by Operation Pedestal in August and the Allied landings in North Africa, Operation Torch, in November 1942, turned the fortunes of war against Italy. The Axis forces were ejected from Libya and Tunisia in six months after the Battle of El Alamein, while their supply lines were harassed day after day by the growing and overwhelming aerial and naval supremacy of the Allies. By the summer of 1943 the Allies were poised for an invasion of the Italian homeland.

In July 1942, the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito) expanded the CSIR to a full army of about 200,000 men named the Italian Army in Russia (Armata Italiana in Russia, or ARMIR). The ARMIR was also known as the "Italian 8th Army." From August 1942 – February 1943, the Italian 8th Army took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. At Stalingrad, the 8th Army suffered heavy losses (some 20,000 dead and 64,000 captured) when the Soviets isolated the German forces in Stalingrad by attacking the over-stretched Hungarian, Romanian, and Italian forces protecting the German's flanks.

By the summer of 1943, Rome had withdrawn the remnants of these troops to Italy. Many of the Italian POWs captured in the Soviet Union died in captivity due to the harsh conditions in the Soviet prison camps.

On 10 July 1943, a combined force of American and British Commonwealth troops invaded Sicily. German generals again took the lead in the defence and, although they lost the island after weeks of bitter fights, they succeeded in ferrying large numbers of German and Italian forces safely off Sicily to the Italian mainland, on 19 July, an Allied air raid on Rome destroyed both military and collateral civil installations. With these two events, popular support for the war diminished in Italy.[86]

On 25 July, the Grand Council of Fascismvoted to limit the power of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and handed control of the Italian armed forces over to King Victor Emmanuel III. The next day Mussolini met with the King, was dismissed as prime minister, and was then imprisoned. A new Italian government, led by General Pietro Badoglio and Victor Emmanuel III, took over in Italy, although they publicly declared that they would keep fighting alongside the Germans, the new Italian government began secret negotiations with the Allies to come over to the Allied side.[87] On 3 September, a secret armistice was signed with the Allies at Fairfield Camp in Sicily, the armistice was publicly announced on 8 September. By then, the Allies were on the Italian mainland.

On 3 September, British troops crossed the short distance from Sicily to the 'toe' of Italy in Operation Baytown. Two more Allied landings took place on 9 September at Salerno (Operation Avalanche) and at Taranto (Operation Slapstick). The Italian surrender meant that the Allied landings at Taranto took place unopposed, with the troops simply disembarking from warships at the docks rather than assaulting the coastline.

German panzer in Rome, 1944.

Because of the time it took for the new Italian government to negotiate the armistice, the Germans had time to reinforce their presence in Italy and prepare for their defection; in the first weeks of August they increased the number of divisions in Italy from two to seven and took control of vital infrastructure.[88] Once the signing of the armistice was announced on 8 September, German troops quickly disarmed the Italian forces and took over critical defensive positions in Operation Achse, this included Italian-occupied southeastern France and the Italian-controlled areas in the Balkans. Only in Sardinia, Corsica, and in part of Apulia and Calabria were Italian troops able to hold their positions until the arrival of Allied forces. In the area of Rome, only one infantry division—the Granatieri di Sardegna—and some small armoured units fought with commitment, but by 11 September they were overwhelmed by superior German forces.

King Victor Emmanuel III and his family, with Marshal Badoglio, General Mario Roatta, and others, abandoned Rome on 9 September. General Caroni, who was tasked with defending Rome, was given duplicitous orders to have his troops abandon Rome (something he did not want to do), and essentially to provide rear guard protection to the King and his entourage so they could flee to the Abruzzi hills, and later out to sea, they later landed at Brindisi. Most importantly, Badoglio never gave the order "OP 44" for the Italian people to rise up against the Germans until he knew it was too late to do any good; that is, he belatedly issued the order on 11 September. However, from the day of the announcement of the Armistice, when Italian citizens, military personnel and military units decided to rise up and resist on their own, they were sometimes quite effective against the Germans.[89]

On 9 September, two German Fritz X guided bombs sank the Italian battleship Roma off the coast of Sardinia.[90] A Supermarina (Italian Naval Command) broadcast led the Italians to initially believe this attack was carried out by the British.[91]

Italian soldiers taken prisoner by the Germans in Corfu, September 1943.

On the Greek island of Cephallonia, General Antonio Gandin, commander of the 12,000-strong Italian Acqui Division, decided to resist the German attempt to forcibly disarm his force. The battle raged from 13–22 September, when the Italians were forced to surrender after suffering some 1,300 casualties, the ensuing massacre of several thousand Italian prisoners of war by the Germans stands as one of the worst single war crimes committed by the Wehrmacht.

Italian troops captured by the Germans were given a choice to keep fighting with the Germans. About 94,000 Italians accepted and the remaining 710,000 were designated Italian military internees and were transported as forced labour to Germany, some Italian troops that evaded German capture in the Balkans joined the Yugoslav (about 40,000 soldiers) and Greek Resistance (about 20,000).[92] The same happened in Albania.[93]

After the German invasion, deportations of Italian Jews to Nazi death camps began. However, by the time the German advance reached the Campagna concentration camp, all the inmates had already fled to the mountains with the help of the local inhabitants. Rev. Aldo Brunacci of Assisi, under the direction of his bishop, Giuseppe Nicolini, saved all the Jews who sought refuge in Assisi. In October 1943 Nazis raided the Jewish ghetto in Rome; in November 1943 Jews of Genoa and Florence were deported to Auschwitz. It is estimated that 7,500 Italian Jews became victims of the Holocaust.[70]

About two months after Benito Mussolini was stripped of power, he was rescued by the Germans in Operation Eiche ("Oak"), the Germans re-located Mussolini to northern Italy where he set up a new Fascist state, the Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana or RSI). Many Italian personalities joined the RSI, like General Rodolfo Graziani.

Winston Churchill had long regarded southern Europe as the military weak spot of the continent (in World War I he had advocated the Dardanelles campaign, and during World War II he favoured the Balkans as an area of operations, for example in Greece in 1940).[94][95][96] Calling Italy the "soft underbelly" of the Axis, Churchill had therefore advocated this invasion instead of a cross-channel invasion of occupied France, but Italy itself proved anything but a soft target: the mountainous terrain gave Axis forces excellent defensive positions, and it also partly negated the Allied advantage in motorized and mechanized units. The final Allied victory over the Axis in Italy did not come until the spring offensive of 1945, after Allied troops had breached the Gothic Line, leading to the surrender of German and RSI forces in Italy on 2 May shortly before Germany finally surrendered ending World War II in Europe on 8 May. Mussolini was captured and killed on 28 April 1945 by the Italian resistance while attempting to flee.

Japan reacted with shock and outrage to the news of the surrender of Italy to the Allied forces in September 1943. Italian citizens residing in Japan and in Manchukuo were swiftly rounded up and summarily asked whether they were loyal to the King of Savoy, who dishonoured their country by surrendering to the enemy, or with the Duce and the newly created Repubblica Sociale Italiana, which vowed to continue fighting alongside the Germans, those who sided with the King were interned in concentration camps and detained in dismal conditions until the end of the war, while those who opted for the Fascist dictator were allowed to go on with their lives, although under strict surveillance by the Kempeitai.

The news of Italy's surrender did not reach the crew members of the three Italian submarines Giuliani, Cappellini and Torelli travelling to Singapore, then occupied by Japan, to take a load of rubber, tin and strategic materials bound for Italy and Germany's war industry. All the officers and sailors on board were arrested by the Japanese army, and after a few weeks of detention the vast majority of them chose to side with Japan and Germany, the Kriegsmarine assigned new officers to the three units, who were renamed as U-boatU.IT.23, U.IT.24 and U.IT.25, taking part in German war operations in the Pacific until the Giuliani was sunk by the British submarine HMS Tally-ho in February 1944 and the other two vessels were taken over by the Japanese Imperial Navy upon Germany's surrender in 1945.

Alberto Tarchiani, an anti-fascist journalist and activist, was appointed as Ambassador to Washington by the cabinet of Badoglio, which acted as provisional head of the Italian government pending the occupation of the country by the Allied forces. On his suggestion, Italy issued a formal declaration of war on Japan on 14 July 1945,[97] the purpose of this act, which brought no military follow-up, was mainly to persuade the Allies that the new government of Italy deserved to be invited to the San Francisco Peace Conference, as a reward for its co-belligerence. However, the British Prime Minister Churchill and John Foster Dulles were resolutely against the idea, and so Italy's new government was left out of the Conference.

Italy and Japan negotiated the resumption of their respective diplomatic ties after 1951, and later signed several bilateral agreements and treaties.[citation needed]

The official Italian government accounting of World War II 1940–45 losses listed the following data:

Total military dead and missing from 1940–45: 291,376

Losses prior to the Armistice of Cassibile in September 1943: 204,346 (66,686 killed, 111,579 missing, 26,081 died of disease)

Losses after the Armistice: 87,030 (42,916 killed, 19,840 missing, 24,274 died of disease). Military losses in Italy after the September 1943 Armistice included 5,927 with the Allies, 17,488 Italian resistance movement fighters and 13,000 Italian Social Republic (RSI) Fascist forces.[98]

Civilian losses were 153,147 (123,119 post armistice) including 61,432 (42,613 post armistice) in air attacks.[99] A brief summary of data from this report can be found online.[100]
There were in addition to these losses the deaths of African soldiers conscripted by Italy which were estimated by the Italian military at 10,000 in East African Campaign of 1940–41.[101]

Civilian losses as a result of the fighting in Italian Libya were estimated by an independent Russian journalist to be 10,000.[102]
Included in the losses are also 64,000 victims of Nazi reprisals and genocide including 30,000 POWs and 8,500 Jews[103] Russian sources list the deaths of 28,000 of the 49,000 Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union (1942–1954).[104]

After the armistice with the Allies, some 650,000 members of the Italian armed forces who refused to side with the occupying Germans were interned in concentration and labour camps. Of these, around 50,000 died while imprisoned or while under transportation.[107] A further 29,000 died in armed struggles against the Germans while resisting capture immediately following the armistice.[107]

Allied press reports of Italian military prowess in the Second World War were almost always dismissive. British wartime propaganda trumpeted the destruction of the Italian 10th Army by a significantly smaller British force during the early phase of the North African Campaign.[109][110] The propaganda from this Italian collapse, which was designed to boost British morale during a bleak period of the war, left a lasting impression,[111] the later exploits of Rommel and German accounts of events tended to disparage their Italian allies and downplay their contributions; these German accounts were used as a primary source for the Axis side by English-language historians after the war.[112][113] Kenneth Macksey wrote in 1972, that after the split in the Italian state and the reinforcement of fascist Italy by German troops, "the British threw out the Italian Chicken only to let in the German Eagle", for example.[114][nb 11].

James Sadkovich, Peter Haining, Vincent O'Hara, Ian Walker and others have attempted to reassess the performance of the Italian forces. Many previous authors used only German or British sources, not considering the Italian ones, hampered by few Italian sources being translated into English.[117] Contemporary British reports ignored an action of Bir El Gobi, where a battalion of Giovani Fascisti held up the 11th Indian Infantry Brigade and destroyed dozens of tanks of the 22nd Armoured Brigade. Sadkovich, Walker and others have found examples of actions where Italian forces were effective, yet are rarely discussed by most histories.[118][119][120][121] During the Tunisian Campaign, where Italian units were involved in most encounters, such as Kasserine Pass, Mareth, Akarit and Enfidaville, it was observed by General Alexander, "...the Italians fought particularly well, outdoing the Germans in line with them".[122] Rommel also conceded praise on several occasions.[nb 12] Other times, German mistakes were blamed on Italians,[127] or the Germans left the Italians in hopeless situations where failure was unavoidable.[nb 13] Questionable German advice, broken promises and security lapses had direct consequences at the Battle of Cape Matapan, in the convoy war and North Africa.[129] According to Sadkovich, Rommel often retreated leaving immobile infantry units exposed, withdrew German units to rest even though the Italians had also been in combat, would deprive the Italians of their share of captured goods, ignore Italian intelligence, seldom acknowledge Italian successes and often resist formulation of joint strategy.[130][131] Alan J.Levine, an author who has also extensively worked with Italian sources, points out that while Allied efforts to choke off Rommel's supply lines were eventually successful and played the decisive role in the Allied victory in Africa, the Italians who defended it, especially navy commanders, were not feeble-minded or incompetent at all,[132] he criticises Rommel for ignoring the good advice of Italians during the Crusader Offensive (although he also presents a positive picture of the Field Marshal in general),[133] and in review of Sadkovich's work The Italian Navy in World War II, criticises it for being unreliable and recommends Bragadin and the Italian official history instead.[134] Gerhard L.Weinberg, in his 2011 George C. Marshall Lecture "Military History – Some Myths of World War II" (2011) complained that "there is far too much denigration of the performance of Italy's forces during the conflict."[135]

In addition, Italian 'cowardice' did not appear to be more prevalent than the level seen in any army, despite claims of wartime propaganda.[136] Ian Walker wrote:

....it is perhaps simplest to ask who is the most courageous in the following situations: the Italian carristi, who goes into battle in an obsolete M14 tank against superior enemy armour and anti-tank guns, knowing they can easily penetrate his flimsy protection at a range where his own small gun will have little effect;[nb 14] the German panzer soldier or British tanker who goes into battle in a Panzer IV Special or Sherman respectively against equivalent enemy opposition knowing that he can at least trade blows with them on equal terms; the British tanker who goes into battle in a Sherman against inferior Italian armour and anti-tank guns, knowing confidently that he can destroy them at ranges where they cannot touch him. It would seem clear that, in terms of their motto Ferrea Mole, Ferreo Cuore, the Italian carristi really had "iron hearts", even though as the war went on their "iron hulls" increasingly let them down.

The problems that stand out to the vast majority of historians pertain to Italian strategy and equipment. Italian equipment was, in general, not up to the standard of either the Allied or the German armies.[39] An account of the defeat of the Italian 10th Army noted that the incredibly poor quality of the Italian artillery shells saved many British soldiers' lives.[139] More crucially, they lacked suitable quantities of equipment of all kinds and their high command did not take necessary steps to plan for most eventualities,[140] this was compounded by Mussolini's assigning unqualified political favourites to key positions. Mussolini also dramatically overestimated the ability of the Italian military at times, sending them into situations where failure was likely, such as the invasion of Greece.

^The decision to continue with a front-line biplane fighter, due to the success of the highly manoeuvrable Fiat CR.32 during the Spanish Civil war was probably one of the most glaring strategic oversights. Another was the mistaken belief that fast bombers need no fighter escort, particularly modern aircraft with radar support.[40]

^Italian doctrine envisaged a blitzkrieg style approach as early as 1936-8, considerably beyond what most theorists discerned at the time. This stressed massed armour, massed and mobile artillery, action against enemy flanks, deep penetration and exploitation, and the 'indirect' approach, their manuals envisioned M tanks as the core, P tanks as the mobile artillery and reserves for the 'Ms' and L tanks. These were to be combined with fast (celere) infantry divisions and forward anti-tank weapons, the Italians were never able to build the armoured divisions described in their manuals – although they often attempted to mass what they had to make up for the poor performance of some pieces.[41]

^This was being expedited through the conversion of two passenger liners and the scavenging of parts from other vessels. The SS Roma, converted into the Aquila, received 4-shaft turbine engines scavenged from the unfinished light cruisers Cornelio Silla and Paolo Emilio. She was to have a maximum complement of 51 Reggiane Re.2001 fighters. The decision to build carriers came late, the Aquila was virtually ready by the time of the armistice with the Allies in 1943. She was captured by the Germans, who scuttled her in 1945.[45]

^For example: the Fiat G55 Centauro received much German interest and was defined by Oberst Petersen, advisor to Goering, as the "best Axis fighter" and the Macchi C.205 "Veltro" fighter has been argued by many to be the best Italian fighter (and one of the best overall) of the war.

^The M13/40s and M14/41s were not (initially) obsolete when they entered service in late 1940/1941. Their operators (in the form of the Ariete and Littoro divisions) met with much unaccredited success. Yet they became obsolete as the war progressed, it was necessary to maintain production and they suffered unduly as a result of the Italian's inability to produce a suitable successor in time and in numbers.[48][49][50]

^In light of the economic difficulties it was proposed, in 1933, by Marshal Italo Balbo to limit the number of divisions to 20 and ensure that each was fully mobile for ready response, equipped with the latest weaponry and trained for amphibious warfare. The proposal was rejected by Mussolini (and senior figures) who wanted large numbers of divisions to intimidate opponents.[56] To maintain the number of divisions, each became binary, consisting of only two regiments, and therefore equating to a British brigade in size. Even then, they would often be thrown into battle with an under strength complement.

^The French and British, for their part had caused Italy a long list of grievances since during WWI through the extraction of political and economic concessions and the blockading of imports.[63][64] Aware of Italy's material and planning deficiencies leading up to WWII, and believing that Italy's entry into the war on the side of Germany was inevitable, the English blockaded German coal imports from 1 March 1940 in an attempt to bring Italian industry to a standstill,[65] the British and the French then began amassing their naval fleets (to a twelve-to-two superiority in capital ships over the Regia Marina) both in preparation and provocation.[66] They thought wrongly that Italy could be knocked out early, underestimating its determination. Prior to this, from 10 September 1939, the Italians made several attempts to intermediate peace. While Hitler was open to it, the French were not responsive and the British only invited the Italians to change sides, for Mussolini, the risks of staying out of the war were becoming greater than those for entering.[65]

^Walker states[80] that the Greeks had assembled 250,000 men against 150,000 Italians; Bauer[81] states that by 12 November, General Papagos had at the front over 100 infantry battalions fighting in terrain to which they were accustomed, compared with less than 50 Italian battalions.

^Other examples: Bishop and Warner (2001) – "It was Germany's misfortune to be allied to Italy.....the performance of most Italian infantry units risable.....could be relied on to fold like a house of cards.....dash and elan but no endurance";[115] Morrison (1984) – "There was also the Italian fleet to guard against, on paper, but the 'Dago Navy' had long been regarded by British tars as a huge joke".[116]

^Writing about the fighting at the First Battle of El Alamein Rommel stated: "The Italians were willing, unselfish and good comrades in the frontline. There can be no disputing that the achievement of all the Italian units, especially the motorised elements, far outstripped any action of the Italian Army for 100 years. Many Italian generals and officers earned our respect as men as well as soldiers",[123] during the Second Battle of El Alamein the 7th Bersaglieri Regiment exhibited a strong regimental spirit in the fight for Hill 28 that impressed Rommel to comment positively.[124] On a plaque dedicated to the Bersaglieri that fought at Mersa Matruh and Alamein, Rommel wrote: "The German soldier has impressed the world, however the Italian Bersaglieri has impressed the German soldier."[125] Describing the behaviour of the 'Ariete Armoured division' during the last phases of the battle of El Alamein, Rommel also wrote: Enormous dust-clouds could be seen south and south-east of headquarters [of the DAK], where the desperate struggle of the small and inefficient Italian tanks of XX Corps was being played out against the hundred or so British heavy tanks which had come round their open right flank. I was later told by Major von Luck, whose battalion I had sent to close the gap between the Italians and the Afrika Korps, that the Italians, who at that time represented our strongest motorised force, fought with exemplary courage. Tank after tank split asunder or burned out, while all the time a tremendous British barrage lay over the Italian infantry and artillery positions, the last signal came from the Ariete at about 15.30 hours: "Enemy tanks penetrated south of Ariete. Ariete now encircled. Location 5 km north-west Bir el Abd. Ariete tanks still in action." [...] In the Ariete we lost our oldest Italian comrades, from whom we had probably always demanded more than they, with their poor armament, had been capable of performing.[126]

^Ripley asserted: "The Italians supplied the bulk of the Axis troops fighting in North Africa, and too often the German Army unfairly ridiculed Italian military effectiveness either due to its own arrogance or to conceal its own mistakes and failures. In reality, a significant number of Italian units fought skilfully in North Africa, and many "German" victories were the result of Italian skill-at-arms and a combined Axis effort."[128]

^Bierman and Smith[137] documented multiple instances of Italian armour advancing against such odds, including when a disproportionate number of their contingent were knocked out.

^The phrase "prisoner in the Mediterranean" had been used in parliament as early as 30 March 1925, by the naval minister Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel. Revel was arguing for naval funding to receive priority over army funding.[16]

1.
Dodecanese
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The Dodecanese are a group of 15 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea, off the coast of Asia Minor, of which 26 are inhabited. Τhis island group generally defines the limit of the Sea of Crete. They belong to the wider Southern Sporades island group, the most historically important and well-known is Rhodes, which has been the areas dominant island since Antiquity. Of the others, Kos and Patmos are historically the more important, the nine are Agathonisi, Astypalaia, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Kasos, Leipsoi, Leros, Nisyros, Symi, Tilos. Other islands in the chain include Alimia, Arkoi, Chalki, Farmakonisi, Gyali, Kinaros, Levitha, Marathos, Nimos, Pserimos, Saria, Strongyli, Syrna, since Antiquity, these islands formed part of the group known as the Southern Sporades. The name Dōdekanēsos first appears in Byzantine sources in the 8th century, however it was not applied to the current island group, but to the twelve Cyclades islands clustered around Delos. The name may indeed be of far earlier date, and modern historians suggest that a list of 12 islands given by Strabo was the origin of the term. The term remained in use throughout the period and was still used for the Cyclades in both colloquial usage and scholarly Greek-language literature until the 18th century. The transfer of the name to the present-day Dodecanese has its roots in the Ottoman period, the place of the latter two was taken by Kos and Rhodes, bringing the number of the major islands under Italian rule back to twelve. Thus, when the Greek press began agitating for the cession of the islands to Greece in 1913, the islands joined Greece in 1947 as the Governorate-General of the Dodecanese, since 1955 the Dodecanese Prefecture. The Dodecanese have been inhabited since prehistoric times, in the Neopalatial period on Crete, the islands were heavily Minoanized. Following the downfall of the Minoans, the islands were ruled by the Mycenaean Greeks from circa 1400 BC and it is in the Dorian period that they began to prosper as an independent entity, developing a thriving economy and culture through the following centuries. By the early Archaic Period Rhodes and Kos emerged as the islands in the group. Together with the island of Kos and the cities of Knidos and Halicarnassos on the mainland of Asia Minor and this development was interrupted around 499 BC by the Persian Wars, during which the islands were captured by the Persians for a brief period. Following the defeat of the Persians by the Athenians in 478 BC, when the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 BC, they remained largely neutral although they were still members of the League. By the time the Peloponnesian War ended in 404 BC, the Dodecanese were mostly removed from the larger Aegean conflicts, and had begun a period of relative quiet and prosperity. Other islands in the Dodecanese also developed into significant economic and cultural centers, most notably, however, the Peloponnesian War had so weakened the entire Greek civilizations military strength that it lay open to invasion. In 357 BC, the islands were conquered by the king Mausolus of Caria, following the death of Alexander, the islands, and even Rhodes itself, were split up among the many generals who contended to succeed him

2.
Italian concession of Tientsin
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The Italian concession of Tientsin was a small territory in Tianjin, China, officially controlled by the Kingdom of Italy between 1901 and 1947. On 7 September 1901, Italy was granted a concession of 46 hectares in Tientsin from the Chinese government, on 7 June 1902, the Italians took control of the concession, which was to be administered by an Italian consul. After World War I Italy desired to add the former Austro-Hungarian concession which was adjacent to the Italian concession, however, in 1917 China terminated the leases of Germany and Austria-Hungarys concessions. The districts were converted into Special Areas under Chinese control, with an administration from the rest of Tientsin. The Italian concession became the headquarters of the Italian Legione Redenta that had fought in 1919 Allied intervention against Soviet troops in Siberia and Manchuria, in 1935, the Italian concession had a population of about 6,261, including 110 Italian civilians and about 536 foreigners. The Italian Royal Navy stationed some vessels at Tientsin, such as the river gunboats Carlotto and Caboto, during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the Beijing Legation Quarter became the center of an international incident during the Siege of the International Legations by the Boxers for several months. In addition, Italy obtained the concession in Tientsin, southeast of Beijing, on 7 September 1901, a concession in Tientsin was ceded to the Kingdom of Italy by the Qing Dynasty of China. On 7 June 1902, the concession was taken into Italian possession and administered by an Italian consul, the first was Cesare Poma, along with the other foreign concessions, the Italian concession lay on the Pei Ho, southeast of the city centre. In the late 1920s, the Italians even held small forts such as the Forte di Shan Hai Kuan near the Great Wall of China in Manchuria and in Hankow. In 1925, Benito Mussolini created the Battaglione italiano in Cina, the police were Chinese, while the officers were Italians. There was even a team in the Italian concession. During World War II, the Italian concession in Tientsin had a garrison of approximately 600 Italian troops on the side of the Axis powers, on 10 September 1943, when Italy signed an armistice with the Allies, the concession was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army. The Wang Jingwei government fell when the Empire of Japan was defeated, at the same time, the Italian commercial concessions in the Shanghai International Settlement, Hankou and Beijing were ceded to the Republic of China. Concessions in Tianjin Concessions and forts of Italy in China Map of concessions in Tianjin Italian Empire List of former foreign enclaves in China Cucchi, una bandiera italiana in Cina, Rivista Militare, n. Le Regie truppe in Estremo Oriente, 1900-1901, ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, Roma,2005. The Age of Openness China before Mao University of Chicago Press, italy’s Informal Imperialism in Tianjin during the Liberal Epoch, 1902-1922, The Historical Journal, Cambridge University Press,2016, available on CJO2016, doi,10. 1017/S0018246X15000461. L’esercito italiano in Francia e in Oriente Corbaccio ed. Milano,1934, italy’s Encounter with Modern China, Imperial dreams, strategic ambitions, New York, Palgrave Macmillan,2014. “The Triumph of the Uncanny, Italians and Italian Architecture in Tianjin”, In Cultural Studies Review, Vol.19,2,2013, “The Genesis of the Italian Concession in Tianjin, A Combination of Wishful Thinking and Realpolitik”

3.
History of Italy
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The history of Italy begins with the arrival of the first hominins 850,000 years ago at Monte Poggiolo. Italy shows evidence of habitation by modern humans beginning about 43,000 years ago. It is reached by the Neolithic as early as 6000–5500 BC Cardium Pottery, among the Italic peoples, the Latins, originally situated in the Latium region, and their Latin language would come to dominate the peninsula with the Roman conquest of Italy in the 3rd century BC. The decline and collapse of the Western Empire by the end of the 5th century is taken to mark the end of Late Antiquity, a Lombard Kingdom of Italy was established, although parts of the peninsula remained under Byzantine rule and influence until the 11th century. With the rise of nationalism and the idea of the state in the 19th century. The new Kingdom of Italy, established in 1861, quickly modernized and built a colonial empire, colonizing parts of Africa. However, many regions of the nation remained rural and poor. Part of the allied powers of World War I, Italy defeated its historical enemy. Soon afterwards, however, the state collapsed to social unrest. Italy joined the Axis powers in World War II, falling into a bloody Civil War in 1943, in 1946, as a result of a Constitutional Referendum, the monarchy was abolished. The new republic was proclaimed on 2 June 1946, in the 1950s and 1960s, Italy saw a period of rapid modernization and sustained economic growth, the so-called Italian economic miracle. Italy plays a prominent role in regional and global military, cultural, in prehistoric times, the Italian peninsula was rather different from its current shape. During the last Ice Age, the islands of Elba and Sicily were connected to the mainland. The Adriatic Sea was far smaller, since it started at what is now the Gargano peninsula, the arrival of the first hominins was 850,000 years ago at Monte Poggiolo. The presence of the Homo neanderthalensis has been demonstrated in archaeological findings dating to c.50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens sapiens appeared during the upper Palaeolithic. Remains of the prehistoric age have been found in Liguria, Lombardy. The most famous is perhaps that of Ötzi the Iceman, the mummy of a hunter found in the Similaun glacier in South Tyrol. During the Copper Age, Indoeuropean people migrated to Italy, approximatively four waves of population from north to the Alps have been identified

4.
Ancient history
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Ancient history is the aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history and extending as far as the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian Cuneiform script, the term classical antiquity is often used to refer to history in the Old World from the beginning of recorded Greek history in 776 BC. This roughly coincides with the date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, the beginning of the history of ancient Rome. In India, ancient history includes the period of the Middle Kingdoms, and, in China. Historians have two major avenues which they take to better understand the ancient world, archaeology and the study of source texts, primary sources are those sources closest to the origin of the information or idea under study. Primary sources have been distinguished from secondary sources, which cite, comment on. Archaeology is the excavation and study of artefacts in an effort to interpret, archaeologists excavate the ruins of ancient cities looking for clues as to how the people of the time period lived. The study of the ancient cities of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, the city of Pompeii, an ancient Roman city preserved by the eruption of a volcano in AD79. Its state of preservation is so great that it is a window into Roman culture and provided insight into the cultures of the Etruscans. The Terracotta Army, the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in ancient China, the discovery of Knossos by Minos Kalokairinos and Sir Arthur Evans. The discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann, most of what is known of the ancient world comes from the accounts of antiquitys own historians. Although it is important to take account the bias of each ancient author. Some of the more notable ancient writers include Herodotus, Thucydides, Arrian, Plutarch, Polybius, Sima Qian, Sallust, Livy, Josephus, Suetonius, furthermore, the reliability of the information obtained from these surviving records must be considered. Few people were capable of writing histories, as literacy was not widespread in almost any culture until long after the end of ancient history, the earliest known systematic historical thought emerged in ancient Greece, beginning with Herodotus of Halicarnassus. He was also the first to distinguish between cause and immediate origins of an event, the Roman Empire was one of the ancient worlds most literate cultures, but many works by its most widely read historians are lost. Indeed, only a minority of the work of any major Roman historian has survived, prehistory is the period before written history. The early human migrations in the Lower Paleolithic saw Homo erectus spread across Eurasia 1.8 million years ago, the controlled use of fire occurred 800,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. 250,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged in Africa, 60–70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and reached Australia

5.
Prehistoric Italy
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In prehistoric times, the Italian peninsula was rather different from how it is now. During glaciations, for example, the sea level was lower, the Adriatic Sea began at what is now the Gargano Peninsula, and what is now its surface up to Venice was a fertile plain with a humid climate. The presence of Homo neanderthalensis has been demonstrated in archaeological findings dating to c.50,000 years ago, there are some twenty such sites, the most important being that of the Grotta Guattari at San Felice Circeo, on the Tyrrhenian Sea south of Rome. Other are the grotta di Fumane and the Breuil grotto, also in San Felice, the first Cro Magnon inhabitants of Italy moved across the peninusula, establishing themselves in small settlements far from each one, most on high areas. In 2011 it has discovered the most ancient Sardinian complete human skeleton at Pistoccu, in Marina di Arbus. Cardium Pottery is a Neolithic decorative style that gets its name from the imprinting of the clay with the shell of the Cardium edulis, a marine mollusk. The alternative name Impressed Ware is given by archaeologists to define this culture, because impressions can be with sharp objects other than Cardium shell. Impressed Ware is found in the zone covering Italy to the Ligurian coast as distinct from the more western Cardial beginning in Provence, France and extending to western Portugal. This pottery style gives its name to the culture of the Mediterranean Neolithic. Since the Late-Neolithic, Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, later, in the Bronze Age, megalithic structures were built also in Latium, Puglia and Sicily. The Remedello, Rinaldone and Gaudo cultures are late Neolithic cultures of Italy, traces of which are found in the present-day regions of Lombardy, Tuscany, Latium. They are sometimes described as Eneolithic cultures, due to their use of copper tools. The earliest Statue menhirs, frequently depicting weapons, were erected by the populations of northern Italy and this sculptural tradition of possible steppe origin, lasted in some regions well into the Bronze Age and even into the Iron Age. The Beaker culture marks the transition between the Eneolitichic and the early Bronze Age and it was followed in the Middle Bronze Age by the facies of the pile dwellings and of the dammed settlements. Located in Sardinia, the Nuragic civilization, who lasted from the early Bronze Age to the second century A. D and it takes its name from the characteristic Nuraghe. The nuraghe towers are considered the best-preserved and largest megalithic remains in Europe. Their effective use is debated, while most scholars considered them as fortresses. A warrior and mariner people, the ancient Sardinians held flourishing trades with the other Mediterranean peoples, another important element of this civilitation are the Giants of Monte Prama, perhaps the oldest anthropomorphic statues of the western Mediterranean sea

6.
Etruscan civilization
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The Etruscan civilization is the modern name given to a powerful and wealthy civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio. Culture that is identifiably Etruscan developed in Italy after about 800 BC, the latter gave way in the 7th century BC to a culture that was influenced by ancient Greece, Magna Graecia, and Phoenicia. The decline was gradual, but by 500 BC the political destiny of Italy had passed out of Etruscan hands, the last Etruscan cities were formally absorbed by Rome around 100 BC. Politics were based on the city, and probably the family unit. In their heyday, the Etruscan elite grew very rich through trade with the Celtic world to the north and the Greeks to the south, archaic Greece had a huge influence on their art and architecture, and Greek mythology was evidently very familiar to them. The study also excluded recent Anatolian connection, the ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī. Their Roman name is the origin of the terms Tuscany, which refers to their heartland, and Etruria, which can refer to their wider region. In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians, from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī, Tyrrhēnia, the word may also be related to the Hittite Taruisa. The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, which was syncopated to Rasna or Raśna, the origins of the Etruscans are mostly lost in prehistory, although Greek historians as early as the 5th century BC, repeatedly associated the Tyrrhenians with Pelasgians. Strabo as well as the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus make mention of the Tyrrhenians as pirates, pliny the Elder put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north and wrote in his Natural History, Adjoining these the Noricans are the Raeti and Vindelici. All are divided into a number of states, the Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the Gauls, their leader was named Raetus. Historians have no literature and no original Etruscan texts of religion or philosophy, therefore, much of what is known about this civilization is derived from grave goods, another source of genetic data on Etruscan origins is from four ancient breeds of cattle. Analyzing the mitochondrial DNA of these and seven other breeds of Italian cattle, the other Italian breeds were linked to northern Europe. Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania, some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly consumed by greater, more powerful neighbours. However, it is certain that the structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC and this led the Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage, whose interests also collided with the Greeks. Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean, from the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces

7.
Magna Graecia
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The settlers who began arriving in the 8th century BC brought with them their Hellenic civilization, which was to leave a lasting imprint in Italy, such as in the culture of ancient Rome. Most notably the Roman poet Ovid referred to the south of Italy as Magna Graecia in his poem Fasti, according to Strabo, Magna Graecias colonization started already at the time of the Trojan War and lasted for several centuries. Also during that period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and they included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of Italy Magna Graecia since it was so densely inhabited by the Greeks, the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria, Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions. With colonization, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites, an original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic civilisations. Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like Neapolis, Syracuse, Acragas Paestum, other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum, Epizephyrian Locri, Rhegium, Croton, Thurii, Elea, Nola, Ancona, Syessa, Bari and others. Following the Pyrrhic War in the 3rd century BC, Magna Graecia was absorbed into the Roman Republic, a remarkable example of the influence is the Griko-speaking minority that still exists today in the Italian regions of Calabria and Apulia. Griko is the name of a language combining ancient Doric, Byzantine Greek, there is a rich oral tradition and Griko folklore, limited now but once numerous, to around 30,000 people, most of them having become absorbed into the surrounding Italian element. Some scholars, such as Gerhard Rohlfs, argue that the origins of Griko may ultimately be traced to the colonies of Magna Graecia, one example is the Griko people, some of whom still maintain their Greek language and customs. For example, Greeks re-entered the region in the 16th and 17th century in reaction to the conquest of the Peloponnese by the Ottoman Empire, especially after the end of the Siege of Coron, large numbers of Greeks took refuge in the areas of Calabria, Salento and Sicily. Greeks from Coroni, the so-called Coronians, were nobles, who brought with them substantial movable property and they were granted special privileges and tax exemptions. Other Greeks who moved to Italy came from the Mani Peninsula of the Peloponnese, the Maniots were known for their proud military traditions and for their bloody vendettas, many of which still continue today. Another group of Maniot Greeks moved to Corsica, Ancient Greek dialects Greeks in Italy Italiotes Graia Graïke Graecus Griko people Griko language Hellenic civilization Names of the Greeks Cerchiai L. Jannelli L. Longo F. The Greek Cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily, in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. 21 June,2005,17,19 GMT18,19 UK, salentinian Peninsula, Greece and Greater Greece. Traditional Griko song performed by Ghetonia, traditional Griko song performed by amateur local group. Second Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of Southern Italy, the Greeks in the West, genetic signatures of the Hellenic colonisation in southern Italy and Sicily

8.
Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid

9.
Roman Italy
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Roman Italy was created officially by the Roman emperor Augustus with the Latin name Italia. It was the first time in history that the Italian Peninsula was united under the same name, in the year 292, the three islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily were added to Roman Italy by Diocletian. Roman Italy remained united until the sixth century, when it was divided between the Byzantine Empire and territories of the Germanic peoples, since then, Italia remained divided for nearly thirteen centuries until 1861 when it was reunited in a similar way in the modern Kingdom of Italy. Italy was the name of the division of the Italian Peninsula during the Roman era. It was not a province, but became the territory of the city of Rome, following the end of the Social War, Rome had allowed its Italian allies full rights in Roman society and granted the Roman citizenship to all the Italic peoples. Although not founded as a city in 330, Constantinople gained in importance. It finally gained the rank of capital when given an urban prefect in 359. In 402, the capital was moved to Ravenna from Milan, the name Italia covered an area whose borders evolved over time. Under Augustus, the peoples of todays Aosta Valley and of the western and northern Alps were subjugated, and the Italian eastern border was brought to the Arsia in Istria. Finally, in the late 3rd century, Italy came to include the islands of Corsica and Sardinia and Sicily, as well as Raetia, the city of Emona was the easternmost town of Italy. At the beginning of the era, Italy was a collection of territories with different political statuses. Some cities, called municipia, had independence from Rome, while others. The Italian economy flourished, agriculture, handicraft and industry had a sensible growth, the Italian population may have grown as well, three census were ordered by Augustus, to record the number of Roman citizens throughout the empire. The surviving totals were 4,063,000 in 28 BC,4,233,000 in 8 BC, and 4,937,000 in AD14, but it is still debated whether these counted all citizens, all adult male citizens, or citizens sui iuris. During the Crisis of the Third Century the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the pressures of invasions, military anarchy and civil wars. In 284, emperor Diocletian restored political stability and he carried out thorough administrative reforms to maintain order. He created the so-called Tetrarchy whereby the empire was ruled by four co-emperors and he decreased the size of the Roman provinces by doubling their number to reduce the power of the provincial governors. He grouped the provinces into several dioceses and put them under the supervision of the imperial vicarius, during the Crisis of the Third Century the importance of Rome declined because she was far from the troubled frontiers

10.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period

11.
Italy in the Middle Ages
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Late Antiquity in Italy lingered on into the 7th century under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and the Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty, the Byzantine Papacy until the mid 8th century. The Middle Ages proper begin as the Byzantine Empire was weakening under the pressure of the Muslim conquests, Lombard rule ended with the invasion of Charlemagne in 773, who established the Kingdom of Italy and the Papal States. In the 11th century began a development unique to Italy. On the other hand, the Italian city states were in a state of constant warfare, adding to, each city aligned itself with one faction or the other, yet was divided internally between the two warring parties, Guelfs and Ghibellines. Since the 13th century, these wars had increasingly been fought by mercenaries, giving rise to the Italian institution of condottieri and the Swiss mercenary culture. The precarious balance between these powers came to an end in 1494 as the duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza sought the aid of Charles VIII of France against Venice, triggering the Italian War of 1494–98. The House of Habsburg would control Italy for the duration of the modern period. Italy was invaded by the Visigoths in the 5th century, the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, was deposed in 476 by an Eastern Germanic general, Odoacer. He subsequently ruled in Italy for seventeen years as rex gentium, theoretically under the suzerainty of the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno, the administration remained essentially the same as that under the Western Roman Empire, and gave religious freedoms to the Christians. Odoacer fought against the Vandals, who had occupied Sicily, in 489, however, Emperor Zeno decided to oust the Ostrogoths, a foederatum people living in the Danube, by sending them into Italy. On February 25,493 Theodoric the Great defeated Odoacer and became the king of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric, who had lived long in Constantinople, is now generally considered a Romanized German, and he in fact ruled over Italy largely through Roman personnel. The reign of Theodoric is generally considered a period of recovery for the country, infrastructures were repaired, frontiers were expanded, and the economy well cared for. The Latin culture flourished for the last time with figures like Boethius, Theodorics minister, however, Theodorics successors were not equal to him. This conflict, known as Gothic Wars, destroyed much of the life that had survived the barbarian invasions. Town life did not disappear, but they became smaller and considerably more primitive than they had been in Roman times, subsistence agriculture employed the bulk of the Italian population. Wars, famines, and disease epidemics had an effect on the demographics of Italy. The agricultural estates of the Roman era did not disappear and they produced an agricultural surplus that was sold in towns, however slavery was replaced by other labour systems such as serfdom. The withdrawal of Byzantine armies allowed another Germanic people, the Lombards, cividale del Friuli was the first main centre to fall, while the Byzantine resistance concentrated in the coast areas

12.
Odoacer
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Flavius Odoacer, also known as Flavius Odovacer, was a soldier who in 476 became the first King of Italy. His reign is seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire. Though the real power in Italy was in his hands, he represented himself as the client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos death in 480, Odoacer introduced few important changes into the administrative system of Italy. He had the support of the Roman Senate and was able to land to his followers without much opposition. Unrest among his warriors led to violence in 477–478, but no such disturbances occurred during the period of his reign. Although Odoacer was an Arian Christian, he intervened in the affairs of the orthodox. Probably of Scirian descent, Odoacer was a leader in Italy who led the revolt of Herulian, Rugian. With the backing of the Roman Senate, Odoacer thenceforth ruled Italy autonomously, paying lip service to the authority of Julius Nepos, the last Western emperor, and Zeno, upon Nepos murder in 480 Odoacer invaded Dalmatia, to punish the murderers. He did so, executing the conspirators, but within two years also conquered the region and incorporated it into his domain. When Illus, master of soldiers of the Eastern Empire, asked for Odoacer’s help in 484 in his struggle to depose Zeno, the emperor responded first by inciting the Rugi of present-day Austria to attack Italy. During the winter of 487–488 Odoacer crossed the Danube and defeated the Rugi in their own territory, Zeno also appointed the Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great who was menacing the borders of the Eastern Empire, to be king of Italy, turning one troublesome, nominal vassal against another. Theoderic invaded Italy in 489 and by August 490 had captured almost the entire peninsula, the city surrendered on 5 March 493, Theoderic invited Odoacer to a banquet of reconciliation and there killed him. Odoacer is the earliest ruler of Italy for whom an autograph of any of his legal acts has survived to the current day. The larger portion of a record of Odoacer granting properties in Sicily, except for the fact that he was not considered Roman, Odoacers ethnic origins are not completely known. Both the Anonymus Valesianus and John of Antioch state his fathers name was Edeko, since Sebastian Tillemont in the 17th century, all three have been considered to be the same person. In his Getica, Jordanes describes Odoacer as king of the Turcilingi, however, in his Romana, the same author defines him as a member of the Rugii. The Consularia Italica calls him king of the Heruli, while Theophanes appears to be guessing when he calls him a Goth, marcellinus Comes calls him the king of the Goths. One of these is that his name, Odoacer, for which an etymology in Germanic languages had not been found, could be a form of the Turkish Ot-toghar

13.
Ostrogothic Kingdom
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The Ostrogothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of Italy, was established by the Ostrogoths in Italy and neighbouring areas from 493 to 553. Under Theoderic, its first king, the Ostrogothic kingdom reached its zenith, most of the social institutions of the late Western Roman Empire were preserved during his rule. Theodoric called himself Gothorum Romanorumque rex, demonstrating his desire to be a leader for both peoples, starting in 535, the Eastern Roman Empire invaded Italy under Justinian I. The Ostrogothic ruler at that time, Witiges, could not defend successfully and was captured when the capital Ravenna fell. The Ostrogoths rallied around a new leader, Totila, and largely managed to reverse the conquest, the last king of the Ostrogothic Kingdom was Teia. The Ostrogoths were the branch of the Goths. They settled and established a state in Dacia, but during the late 4th century. After the collapse of the Hunnic empire in 454, large numbers of Ostrogoths were settled by Emperor Marcian in the Roman province of Pannonia as foederati, but in 460, during the reign of Leo I, because the payment of annual sums had ceased, they ravaged Illyricum. Peace was concluded in 461, whereby the young Theoderic Amal, son of Theodemir of the Amals, was sent as a hostage to Constantinople, where he received a Roman education. The period 477-483 saw a complex three-way struggle among Theoderic the Amal, who had succeeded his father in 474, Theodoric Strabo, in this conflict, alliances shifted regularly, and large parts of the Balkans were devastated by it. In the end, after Strabos death in 481, Zeno came to terms with Theoderic, parts of Moesia and Dacia ripensis were ceded to the Goths, and Theoderic was named magister militum praesentalis and consul for 484. Barely a year later, Theoderic and Zeno fell out, orestes had reneged on the promise of land in Italy for Odoacers troops, a pledge made to ensure their neutrality in his attack on Nepos. Odoacer retained the Roman administrative system, cooperated actively with the Roman Senate and he evicted the Vandals from Sicily in 477, and in 480 he occupied Dalmatia after the murder of Julius Nepos. An agreement was reached between Zeno and Theoderic, stipulating that Theoderic, if victorious, was to rule in Italy as the emperors representative. Theoderic with his people set out from Moesia in the autumn of 488, passed through Dalmatia, the first confrontation with the army of Odoacer was at the river Isonzo on August 28. Odoacer was defeated and withdrew towards Verona, where a month later another battle was fought, resulting in a bloody, Odoacer fled to his capital at Ravenna, while the larger part of his army under Tufa surrendered to the Goths. Theoderic then sent Tufa and his men against Odoacer, but he changed his allegiance again, in 490, Odoacer was thus able to campaign against Theoderic, take Milan and Cremona and besiege the main Gothic base at Ticinum. At that point, however, the Visigoths intervened, the siege of Ticinum was lifted, Odoacer fled again to Ravenna, while the Senate and many Italian cities declared themselves for Theoderic

14.
Vandal Kingdom
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The Vandal Kingdom or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans was a kingdom established by the Germanic Vandals under Gaiseric in North Africa and the Mediterranean from 435 AD to 534 AD. The Kingdom was conquered by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the Vandalic War, although primarily remembered for their persecution of orthodox Nicene Christians, the Vandals were also patrons of learning. Grand building projects continued, schools flourished and North Africa fostered many of the most innovative writers, the Vandals, under their new king Genseric, crossed to Africa in 429. According to Procopius, the Vandals came to Africa at the request of Bonifacius, however, it has been suggested that the Vandals migrated to Africa in search of safety, they had been attacked by a Roman army in 422 and had failed to seal a treaty with them. Advancing eastwards along the coast, the Vandals laid siege to the city of Hippo Regius in 430. Inside, Saint Augustine and his priests prayed for relief from the invaders, on 28 August 430, three months into the siege, St. Augustine died, perhaps from starvation or stress, as the wheat fields outside the city lay dormant and unharvested. Peace was made between the Romans and the Vandals in 435 through a treaty giving the Vandals control of coastal Numidia, geiseric chose to break the treaty in 439 when he invaded the province of Africa Proconsularis and laid siege to Carthage. The city was captured without a fight, the Vandals entered the city while most of the inhabitants were attending the races at the hippodrome. Genseric made it his capital, and styled himself the King of the Vandals and Alans, conquering Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Malta and the Balearic Islands, he built his kingdom into a powerful state. Historian Cameron suggests that the new Vandal rule may not have been unwelcome to the population of North Africa as the landowners were generally unpopular. The impression given by such as Victor of Vita, Quodvultdeus. However, recent archaeological investigations have challenged this assertion, although Carthages Odeon was destroyed, the street pattern remained the same and some public buildings were renovated. The political centre of Carthage was the Byrsa Hill, new industrial centres emerged within towns during this period. When the Vandals raided Sicily in 440, the Western Roman Empire was too preoccupied with war in Gaul to react, theodosius II, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, dispatched an expedition to deal with the Vandals in 441, however it only progressed as far as Sicily. The Western Empire under Valentinian III secured peace with the Vandals in 442, under the treaty the Vandals gained Byzacena, Tripolitania, part of Numidia, and confirmed their control of Proconsular Africa. During the next years, with a large fleet, Genseric looted the coasts of the Eastern and Western Empires. After Attila the Huns death, however, the Romans could afford to turn their back to the Vandals. In an effort to bring the Vandals into the fold of the Empire, before this treaty could be carried out, however, politics again played a crucial part in the blunders of Rome

15.
Kingdom of the Lombards
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The king was traditionally elected by the highest-ranking aristocrats, the dukes, as several attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty failed. The kingdom was subdivided into a number of duchies, ruled by semi-autonomous dukes. The capital of the kingdom and the center of its life was Pavia in the modern northern Italian region of Lombardy. The Lombard invasion of Italy was opposed by the Byzantine Empire, because of this division, the southern duchies were considerably more autonomous than the smaller northern duchies. Over time, the Lombards gradually adopted Roman titles, names, by the time Paul the Deacon was writing in the late 8th century, the Lombardic language, dress and hairstyles had all disappeared. Initially the Lombards were Arianist Christians, at odds with the Papacy both religiously and politically, however, by the end of the 7th century, their conversion to Catholicism was all but complete. Nevertheless, their conflict with the Papacy continued and was responsible for their loss of power in the face of the Franks. Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, adopted the title King of the Lombards, although he never managed to control of Benevento. The only evidence for their use at the level comes from the Duchy of Benevento. The existence of seal rings testifies to the tenacity of Roman traditions of government, in the 6th century Byzantine Emperor Justinian attempted to reassert imperial authority in the territories of the Western Roman Empire. Problems were further exacerbated by widespread famine and a plague pandemic. In the spring of 568 the Lombards, led by King Alboin, moved from Pannonia, the Lombard arrival broke the political unity of the Italian Peninsula for the first time since the Roman conquest. The peninsula was now torn between territories ruled by the Lombards and the Byzantines, with boundaries that changed over time, the territories which remained under Byzantine control were called Romania in northeastern Italy and had its stronghold in the Exarchate of Ravenna. Arriving in Italy, King Alboin gave control of the Eastern Alps to one of his most trusted lieutenants, Gisulf, the duchy, established in the Roman town of Forum Iulii, constantly fought with the Slavic population across the Gorizia border. Justified by its military needs, the Duchy of Friuli thus had greater autonomy compared to other duchies of Langobardia Maior until the reign of Liutprand. Over time, other Lombard Duchies were created in cities of the kingdom. This was dictated primarily by military needs as Dukes were primarily military commanders, tasked to secure control of territory. However, the collection of duchies also contributed to political fragmentation

16.
Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)
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The Kingdom of Italy was one of the constituent kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire, along with the kingdoms of Germany, Bohemia, and Burgundy. It comprised northern and central Italy, but excluded the Republic of Venice and its original capital was Pavia until the 11th century. In June 774, the collapsed and the Franks became masters of northern Italy. The southern areas remained under Lombard control in the Duchy of Benevento, Charlemagne adopted the title King of the Lombards and in 800 had himself crowned Emperor of the Romans in Rome. Members of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule Italy until the deposition of Charles the Fat in 887, until 961, the rule of Italy was continually contested by several aristocratic families from both within and without the kingdom. In 961, King Otto I of Germany, already married to Adelaide, widow of a king of Italy. He continued on to Rome, where he had himself crowned emperor on 7 February 962, the union of the crowns of Italy and Germany with that of the so-called Empire of the Romans created the Holy Roman Empire, to which Burgundy was added in 1032. The resulting wars between Guelphs and Ghibellines, the anti-imperialist and imperialist factions, respectively, were characteristic of Italian politics in the 12th–14th centuries. The Lombard League was the most famous example of this situation, though not a declared separatist movement, by the 15th century, the power of the city-states was largely broken. A series of wars in Lombardy from 1423 to 1454 further reduced the number of competing states in Italy, the next forty years were relatively peaceful in Italy, but in 1494 the peninsula was invaded by France. The resulting Great Italian Wars lasted until 1559 as control of most of the Italian states passed to King Philip II of Spain. The Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty—the same dynasty of which another branch provided the Emperors—continued to rule most of imperial Italy down to the War of the Spanish Succession, after the Imperial Reform of 1495–1512, the Italian kingdom corresponded to the unencircled territories south of the Alps. The Imperial rule in Italy came to an end with the campaigns of the French Revolutionaries in 1792–97, in 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by the last emperor, Francis II, after its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. After the Battle of Taginae, in which the Ostrogoth king Totila was killed, the battle lasted two days and Teia was killed in the fighting. The Kings of the Lombards ruled that Germanic people from their invasion of Italy in 567–68 until the Lombardic identity became lost in the ninth and tenth centuries, after 568, the Lombard kings sometimes styled themselves Kings of Italy. Upon the Lombard defeat at the 774 Siege of Pavia, the kingdom came under the Frankish domination of Charlemagne, the Iron Crown of Lombardy was used for the coronation of the Lombard kings, and the kings of Italy thereafter, for centuries. The primary sources for the Lombard kings before the Frankish conquest are the anonymous 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum, the earliest kings listed in the Origo are almost certainly legendary. They purportedly reigned during the Migration Period, the first ruler attested independently of Lombard tradition is Tato, an initial phase of strong autonomy of the many constituent duchies developed over time with growing regal authority, even if the dukes desires for autonomy were never fully achieved

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History of Islam in southern Italy
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The history of Islam in southern Italy began with the first Muslim settlement in Sicily, at Mazara, which was captured in 827. The subsequent rule of Sicily and Malta started in the 10th century, Islamic rule over all Sicily began in 902, and the Emirate of Sicily lasted from 965 until 1061. The Muslim raids were part of a struggle for power in Italy and Europe, with Christian Byzantine, Frankish, Norman. Muslims were sometimes sought as allies by various Christian factions against other factions, the first permanent Arab settlement on Sicily occurred in 827, but it was not until Taormina fell in 902 that the entire island fell under their sway, though Rometta held out until 965. In that year the Kalbids established the independence of their emirate from the Fatimid caliphate, in 1061 the first Norman conquerors took Messina, and by 1071 Palermo and its citadel were captured. In 1091 Noto fell to the Normans, and the conquest was complete, Malta fell later that year, though the Arab administration was kept in place, marking the final chapter of this period. Widespread conversion ensued, leading to the disappearance of Islam in Sicily by the 1280s, in 1245, Muslim Sicilians were deported to the settlement of Lucera, by order of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. In 1300, Giovanni Pipino di Barletta, count of Altamura, seized Lucera and exiled or sold into slavery its population, the first attacks by Islamic ships on Sicily, then part of the Byzantine Empire, occurred in 652 under the Rashidun Caliphate of Uthman. These were Arab warriors directed by the Governor of Syria, Muawiyah I, and led by Muawiya ibn Hudayj of the Kindah tribe, olympius, the Byzantine exarch of Ravenna, came to Sicily to oust the invaders but failed. Soon after, the Arabs returned to Syria after collecting a large amount of booty. A second Arab expedition to Sicily occurred in 669 and this time, a strong, ravaging force consisting of 200 ships from Alexandria attacked the island. They sacked Syracuse, Sicily and returned to Egypt after a month of pillaging, after the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, attacks from Muslim fleets repeated in 703,728,729,730,731,733, and 734. The last two Arab assaults were met with substantial Byzantine resistance, the first true conquest expedition was launched in 740. In that year, Habib ibn Abi Obeida al-Fihri, who had participated in the 728 attack, though ready to conquer the whole island, the expedition was forced to return to Tunisia by a Berber revolt. A second attack in 752 aimed only to sack Syracuse again, in 812, Ibrahims son, Abdallah I, sent an invasion force to conquer Sicily. His ships were first harassed by the intervention of Gaeta and Amalfi and were destroyed in great number by a tempest. However, they managed to conquer the island of Lampedusa and to ravage Ponza, a further agreement between the new patrician Gregorius and the emir established the freedom of commerce between southern Italy and Ifriqiya. After a further attack in 819 by Mohammed ibn-Adballad, cousin of Amir Ziyadat Allah I of Ifriqiya, the Muslim conquest of Sicily and parts of southern Italy lasted 75 years

18.
Norman conquest of southern Italy
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The Norman conquest of southern Italy spanned most of the 11th and 12th centuries, involving many battles and independent conquerors. Itinerant Norman knights arrived in the Mezzogiorno as mercenaries in the service of Lombard and Byzantine factions and these groups gathered in several places, establishing fiefdoms and states of their own, uniting and elevating their status to de facto independence within fifty years of their arrival. Unlike the Norman conquest of England, which took a few years after one battle, the conquest of southern Italy was the product of decades. Many territories were conquered independently, and only later were unified into a single state, compared to the conquest of England it was unplanned and disorganised, but equally complete. The earliest reported date of the arrival of Norman knights in southern Italy is 999, in that year, according to several sources, Norman pilgrims returning from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem via Apulia stayed with Prince Guaimar III in Salerno. The city and its environs were attacked by Saracens from Africa demanding payment of an annual tribute. While Guaimar began to collect the tribute the Normans ridiculed him and his Lombard subjects for cowardice, the Saracens fled, booty was confiscated and a grateful Guaimar asked the Normans to stay. They refused, but promised to bring his rich gifts to their compatriots in Normandy, some sources have Guaimar sending emissaries to Normandy to bring back knights, and this account of the arrival of the Normans is sometimes known as the Salerno tradition. The Salerno tradition was first recorded by Amatus of Montecassino in his Ystoire de li Normant between 1071 and 1086. Much of this information was borrowed from Amatus by Peter the Deacon for his continuation of the Chronicon Monasterii Casinensis of Leo of Ostia, beginning with the Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius in the 17th century, the Salernitan story became the accepted history. Although its factual accuracy was questioned periodically during the following centuries, another historical account of the arrival of the first Normans in Italy, the Gargano tradition, appears in primary chronicles without reference to any previous Norman presence. Some scholars have combined the Salerno and Gargano tales, and John Julius Norwich suggested that the meeting between Melus and the Normans had been arranged by Guaimar, Melus had been in Salerno just before his visit to Monte Gargano. Another story involves the exile of a group of brothers from the Drengot family, one of the brothers, Osmund or Gilbert, murdered William Repostel in the presence of Robert I, Duke of Normandy after Repostel allegedly boasted about dishonouring his murderers daughter. Threatened with death, the Drengot brother fled with his siblings to Rome, Amatus dates the story to after 1027, and does not mention the pope. According to him, Gilberts brothers were Osmund, Ranulf, Asclettin, repostels murder is dated by all the chronicles to the reign of Robert the Magnificent and after 1027, although some scholars believe Robert was a scribal error for Richard. The earlier date is necessary if the emigration of the first Normans was connected to the Drengots, in the Histories of Ralph Glaber, Rodulfus leaves Normandy after displeasing Count Richard. The sources disagree about which brother was the leader on the southern trip, orderic and William of Jumièges, in the latters Gesta Normannorum Ducum, name Osmund, Glaber names Rudolph, and Leo, Amatus and Adhemar of Chabannes name Gilbert. According to most southern-Italian sources, the leader of the Norman contingent at the Battle of Cannae in 1018 was Gilbert, if Rudolf is identified with the Rudolf of Amatus history as a Drengot brother, he may have been the leader at Cannae

19.
Italian city-states
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The Italian city-states were a political phenomenon of small independent states mostly in the central and northern Italian peninsula between the 9th and 15th centuries. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, urban settlements in Italy generally enjoyed a greater continuity than in the rest of western Europe, many of these towns were survivors of earlier Etruscan, Umbrian and Roman towns which had existed within the Roman Empire. The republican institutions of Rome had also survived, the very first Italian city-state can be considered the Republic of Venice, which de facto broke apart from Byzantine Empire since 742, becoming also de jure independent in the following centuries. The other first Italian city-states appeared in northern Italy as a result of a struggle to gain greater autonomy when not independent from the German Holy Roman Empire, other city-states were associated to these commune cities, like Genoa, Turin and, in the Adriatic, Ragusa. It is important to say that Venice was never subjected to the Holy Roman Empire, around 1100, Genoa and Venice emerged as independent Maritime republics. For Genoa – nominally – the Holy Roman Emperor was sovereign, pisa and Amalfi also emerged as maritime republics, trade, shipbuilding and banking helped support their powerful navies in the Mediterranean in those medieval centuries. Between the 12th and 13th centuries, Italy was vastly different from feudal Europe north of the Alps, the Peninsula was a melange of political and cultural elements, not a unified state. Marc Bloch and Fernand Braudel have argued that geography determined the history of the region, the very mountainous nature of Italys landscape was a barrier to effective inter-city communication. The Po plain, however, was an exception, it was the large contiguous area. Those that survived the longest were in the more rugged regions, such as Florence or Venice, while those Roman, urban, republican sensibilities persisted, there were many movements and changes afoot. Italy first felt the changes in Europe from the 11th to the 13th centuries and he argues that these states were mostly republics, unlike the great European monarchies of France and Spain, where absolute power was vested in rulers who could and did stifle commerce. Even northern cities and states were also notable for their merchant republics, geographically, and because of trade, Italian cities such as Venice became international trading and banking hubs and intellectual crossroads. It is estimated that the per capita income of northern Italy nearly tripled from the 11th century to the 15th century and this was a highly mobile, demographically expanding society, fueled by the rapidly expanding Renaissance commerce. In the 14th century, just as the Italian Renaissance was beginning, Italy was the capital of Western Europe. However, with the Bubonic Plague in 1348, the birth of the English woolen industry and general warfare, however, by the late 15th century Italy was again in control of trade along the Mediterranean Sea. It found a new niche in luxury items like ceramics, glassware, lace, however, Italy would never regain its strong hold on textiles. And though it was the birthplace of banking, by the 16th century German, by the 13th century, northern and central Italy had become the most literate society in the world. More than one third of the population could read in the vernacular, as could a small

20.
Guelphs and Ghibellines
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The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, rivalry between two parties formed a particularly important aspect of the internal politics of medieval Italy. The struggle for power between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire had arisen with the Investiture Controversy, which began in 1075, the division between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Italy, however, persisted until the 15th century. Guelph is an Italian form of the name of the House of Welf, the names were likely introduced to Italy during the reign of Frederick Barbarossa. When Frederick conducted military campaigns in Italy to expand imperial power there, the Lombard League and its allies were defending the liberties of the urban communes against the Emperors encroachments and became known as Guelphs. The Ghibellines were thus the party, while the Guelphs supported the Pope. Broadly speaking, Guelphs tended to come from wealthy mercantile families, the Lombard League defeated Frederick at the Battle of Legnano in 1176. Frederick recognized the autonomy of the cities of the Lombard league under his nominal suzerainty. The division developed its own dynamic in the politics of medieval Italy, smaller cities tended to be Ghibelline if the larger city nearby was Guelph, as Guelph Republic of Florence and Ghibelline Republic of Siena faced off at the Battle of Montaperti,1260. Pisa maintained a staunch Ghibelline stance against her fiercest rivals, the Guelph Republic of Genoa, adherence to one of the parties could therefore be motivated by local or regional political reasons. Within cities, party allegiances differed from guild to guild, rione to rione, moreover, sometimes traditionally Ghibelline cities allied with the Papacy, while Guelph cities were even punished with interdict. Contemporaries did not use the terms Guelph and Ghibellines much until about 1250, at the beginning of the 13th century, Philip of Swabia, a Hohenstaufen, and his son-in-law Otto of Brunswick, a Welf, were rivals for the imperial throne. Philip was supported by the Ghibellines as a relative of Frederick I, Frederick II also introduced this division to the Crusader states in the Levant during the Sixth Crusade. After the death of Frederick II in 1250 the Ghibellines were supported by Conrad IV of Germany and later Manfred, King of Sicily, the Sienese Ghibellines inflicted a noteworthy defeat on Florentine Guelphs at the Battle of Montaperti. In that period the stronghold of Italian Ghibellines was the city of Forlì and that city remained with the Ghibelline factions, partly as a means of preserving its independence, rather than out of loyalty to the temporal power, as Forlì was nominally in the Papal States. Over the centuries, the papacy tried several times to control of Forlì. Essentially the two sides were now fighting either against German influence, or against the power of the Pope. In Florence and elsewhere the Guelphs usually included merchants and burghers and they also adopted peculiar customs such as wearing a feather on a particular side of their hats, or cutting fruit a particular way, according to their affiliation

21.
Early modern period
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The early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era. Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the period witnessed the exploration and colonization of the Americas and the rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe. The historical powers became involved in trade, as the exchange of goods, plants, animals, and food crops extended to the Old World. The Columbian Exchange greatly affected the human environment, New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the early modern period. This process began in the medieval North Italian city-states, particularly Genoa, Venice, the early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. The European colonization of the Americas, Asia, and Africa occurred during the 15th to 19th centuries, the early modern trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Historians typically date the end of the modern period when the French Revolution of the 1790s began the modern period. Early modern themes Other In 16th century China, the Ming Dynastys economy was stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, Spanish. China became involved in a new trade of goods, plants, animals. Trade with Early Modern Europe and Japan brought in massive amounts of silver, during the last decades of the Ming the flow of silver into China was greatly diminished, thereby undermining state revenues and the entire Chinese economy. This damage to the economy was compounded by the effects on agriculture of the incipient Little Ice Age, natural calamities, crop failure, the ensuing breakdown of authority and peoples livelihoods allowed rebel leaders such as Li Zicheng to challenge Ming authority. The Ming Dynasty fell around 1644 to the Qing Dynasty, which was the last ruling dynasty of China, during its reign, the Qing Dynasty became highly integrated with Chinese culture. The Azuchi-Momoyama period saw the unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Edo period from 1600 to 1868 characterized early modern Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period gets its name from the city, Edo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, in 1392, General Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon Dynasty with a largely bloodless coup. Joseon experienced advances in science and culture, King Sejong the Great promulgated hangul, the Korean alphabet. The period saw various other cultural and technological advances as well as the dominance of neo-Confucianism over the entirety of Korea, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, invasions by the neighboring Japanese and Qing Chinese nearly overran the Korean peninsula

22.
Italian Renaissance
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The term Renaissance is in essence a modern one that came into currency in the 19th century, in the work of historians such as Jules Michelet and Jacob Burckhardt. The French word renaissance means Rebirth, and the era is best known for the renewed interest in the culture of classical antiquity after the period that Renaissance humanists labeled the Dark Ages. Though today perhaps best known for Italian Renaissance art and architecture, the period saw major achievements in literature, music, philosophy, Italy became the recognized European leader in all these areas by the late 15th century, and to varying degrees retained this lead until about 1600. This was despite a turbulent and generally disastrous period in Italian politics, the European Renaissance began in Tuscany, and centred in the city of Florence. It later spread to Venice, where the remains of ancient Greek culture were brought together, the Renaissance later had a significant effect on Rome, which was ornamented with some structures in the new allantico mode, then was largely rebuilt by humanist sixteenth-century popes. The Italian Renaissance peaked in the century as foreign invasions plunged the region into the turmoil of the Italian Wars. However, the ideas and ideals of the Renaissance endured and spread into the rest of Europe, setting off the Northern Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance is best known for its cultural achievements. Accounts of Renaissance literature usually begin with Petrarch and his friend, famous vernacular poets of the 15th century include the renaissance epic authors Luigi Pulci, Matteo Maria Boiardo, and Ludovico Ariosto. 15th century writers such as the poet Poliziano and the Platonist philosopher Marsilio Ficino made extensive translations from both Latin and Greek, the same is true for architecture, as practiced by Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio, and Bramante. Their works include Florence Cathedral, St. Peters Basilica in Rome, yet cultural contributions notwithstanding, some present-day historians also see the era as one of the beginning of economic regression for Italy. By the Late Middle Ages, Latium, the heartland of the Roman Empire. Rome was a city of ancient ruins, and the Papal States were loosely administered, and vulnerable to external interference such as that of France, and later Spain. The Papacy was affronted when the Avignon Papacy was created in southern France as a consequence of pressure from King Philip the Fair of France, in the south, Sicily had for some time been under foreign domination, by the Arabs and then the Normans. Sicily had prospered for 150 years during the Emirate of Sicily, in contrast Northern and Central Italy had become far more prosperous, and it has been calculated that the region was among the richest of Europe. The Crusades had built lasting trade links to the Levant, the main trade routes from the east passed through the Byzantine Empire or the Arab lands and onwards to the ports of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. Luxury goods bought in the Levant, such as spices, dyes, moreover, the inland city-states profited from the rich agricultural land of the Po valley. From France, Germany, and the Low Countries, through the medium of the Champagne fairs, land and river trade routes brought goods such as wool, wheat, and precious metals into the region. The extensive trade that stretched from Egypt to the Baltic generated substantial surpluses that allowed significant investment in mining, thus, while northern Italy was not richer in resources than many other parts of Europe, the level of development, stimulated by trade, allowed it to prosper

23.
Italian Wars
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Ludovico Sforza of Milan, seeking an ally against the Republic of Venice, encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples as a pretext. For several months, French forces moved through Italy virtually unopposed, Charles VIII made triumphant entries into Pisa on November 8,1494, Florence on November 17,1494, and Rome on December 31,1494. Upon reaching the city of Monte San Giovanni in the Kingdom of Naples, Charles VIII sent envoys to the town, the garrison killed and mutilated the envoys and sent the bodies back to the French lines. This enraged the French army so that reduced the castle in the town with blistering artillery fire on February 9,1495 and stormed the fort. This was the sack of Naples. News of the French Armys sack of Naples provoked a reaction among the city-states of Northern Italy, the League was specifically formed to resist French aggression. The League was established on 31 March after negotiations by Venice, Milan, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Later on the League consisted of the Holy Roman Empire, the Duchy of Milan, Spain, the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, the Duchy of Mantua and this coalition, effectively, cut Charles army off from returning to France. After establishing a government in Naples, Charles started to march north on his return to France. However, in the town of Fornovo he met the League army. In contemporary tradition, though, the battle counted as a Holy League victory, because the French forces had to leave, to the Italian coalition, however, it was at best a pyrrhic victory, in that its strategic outcome and long-term consequences were unfavorable. Although the League managed to force Charles VIII off the battlefield, it suffered much higher casualties and could not prevent the opposing army crossing the Italian lands as it returned to France. As a result of Charles VIIIs expedition, the states of Italy were shown once. In fact, the individual Italian states could not field armies comparable to those of the feudal monarchies of Europe in numbers. Thus, Charles VIII lost all that he conquered in Italy, King Charles VIII died on April 7,1498 and was succeeded to the throne of France by his cousin, Louis II, Duke of Orléans, who became Louis XII of France. Ludovico Sforza retained his throne in Milan until 1499, when Charless successor, Louis XII of France, invaded Lombardy, Louis XII justified his claim to the Duchy of Milan by right of his paternal grandfather, Louis duc dOrléans having married Valentina Visconti in 1387. Valentina Visconti was the heir to the Duchy of Milan in the Visconti dynasty, the marriage contract between Valentina Visconti and Louis, duc dOrléans, guaranteed that in failure of male heirs, she would inherit the Visconti dominions. However, when the Visconti dynasty died out in 1447, the Milanese ignored the Orleans claim to the Duchy of Milan, however, bitter factionalism arose under the new republic which set the stage for Francisco Sforza to seize control of Milan in 1450

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Italian unification
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The process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and was completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The memory of the Risorgimento is central to both Italian politics and Italian historiography, for short period is one of the most contested. Italian nationalism was based among intellectuals and political activists, often operating from exile, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Roman province of Italy remained united under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and later disputed between the Kingdom of the Lombards and the Byzantine Empire. Following conquest by the Frankish Empire, the title of King of Italy merged with the office of Holy Roman Emperor. However, the emperor was a foreigner who had little concern for the governance of Italy as a state, as a result. This situation persisted through the Renaissance but began to deteriorate with the rise of modern nation-states in the modern period. Italy, including the Papal States, then became the site of proxy wars between the powers, notably the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and France. Harbingers of national unity appeared in the treaty of the Italic League, in 1454, leading Renaissance Italian writers Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini expressed opposition to foreign domination. Petrarch stated that the ancient valour in Italian hearts is not yet dead in Italia Mia, Niccolò Machiavelli later quoted four verses from Italia Mia in The Prince, which looked forward to a political leader who would unite Italy to free her from the barbarians. I am an Italian, he explained, the French Republic spread republican principles, and the institutions of republican governments promoted citizenship over the rule of the Bourbons and Habsburgs and other dynasties. The reaction against any outside control challenged Napoleons choice of rulers, as Napoleons reign began to fail, the rulers he had installed tried to keep their thrones further feeding nationalistic sentiments. After Napoleon fell, the Congress of Vienna restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments, vincenzo Gioberti, a Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian states under leadership of the Pope in his 1842 book, Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians. Pope Pius IX at first appeared interested but he turned reactionary, Giuseppe Mazzini and Carlo Cattaneo wanted the unification of Italy under a federal republic. That proved too extreme for most nationalists, the middle position was proposed by Cesare Balbo as a confederation of separate Italian states led by Piedmont. One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the Carbonari, a political discussion group formed in Southern Italy early in the 19th century. After 1815, Freemasonry in Italy was repressed and discredited due to its French connections, a void was left that the Carbonari filled with a movement that closely resembled Freemasonry but with a commitment to Italian nationalism and no association with Napoleon and his government. The response came from middle class professionals and business men and some intellectuals, the Carbonari disowned Napoleon but nevertheless were inspired by the principles of the French Revolution regarding liberty, equality and fraternity. They developed their own rituals, and were strongly anticlerical, the Carbonari movement spread across Italy

25.
Modern history
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Modern history, the modern period or the modern era, is the global historiographical approach to the timeframe after the Post-classical history. It took all of history up to 1804 for the worlds population to reach 1 billion. Contemporary history is the span of historic events from approximately 1945 that are relevant to the present time. Some events, while not without precedent, show a new way of perceiving the world, the concept of modernity interprets the general meaning of these events and seeks explanations for major developments. The fundamental difficulty of studying modern history is the fact that a plethora of it has been documented up to the present day and it is imperative to consider the reliability of the information obtained from these records. In the pre-modern era, many peoples sense of self and purpose was expressed via a faith in some form of deity. Pre-modern cultures have not been thought of creating a sense of distinct individuality, religious officials, who often held positions of power, were the spiritual intermediaries to the common person. It was only through intermediaries that the general masses had access to the divine. Tradition was sacred to ancient cultures and was unchanging and the order of ceremony. The term modern was coined in the 16th century to present or recent times. New information about the world was discovered via empirical observation, versus the use of reason. The term Early Modern was introduced in the English language in the 1930s, to distinguish the time between what we call Middle Ages and time of the late Enlightenment. It is important to note that these terms stem from European history, in the Contemporary era, there were various socio-technological trends. Regarding the 21st century and the modern world, the Information Age and computers were forefront in use, not completely ubiquitous. The development of Eastern powers was of note, with China, in the Eurasian theater, the European Union and Russian Federation were two forces recently developed. A concern for Western world, if not the world, was the late modern form of terrorism. The modern period has been a period of significant development in the fields of science, politics, warfare and it has also been an age of discovery and globalization. During this time, the European powers and later their colonies, began a political, economic, the modern era is closely associated with the development of individualism, capitalism, urbanization and a belief in the possibilities of technological and political progress

26.
Military history of Italy during World War I
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This article is about Italian military operations in World War I. Although member of the Triple Alliance, the Kingdom of Italy did not join the Central Powers, the German Empire and the Empire of Austria-Hungary, when the war started in August 1914. Almost a year after the commencement, after secret parallel negotiations with both sides Italy entered the war on the side of the Allied Powers. Italy fought mostly against Austria-Hungary along the border, including high up in the now-Italian Alps. In October 1918 the Italians attacked again, the Austrian army broke, and the Italians drove deep into Austrian territory, leading to the collapse of Austria-Hungary. Fighting ended on 3 November 1918, Italy and the Allies had been victorious. Italian armed forces were involved in the Western Front and in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. At the end of World War I, Italy was recognized a permanent seat in the League of Nations executive council along with Britain, France, Italy was a member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Despite this, in the years before the war, Italy had enhanced its diplomatic relationships with the United Kingdom and France. This was because the Italian government had grown convinced that support of Austria would not gain Italy the territories it wanted, Trieste, Istria, Zara and Dalmatia, in fact, a secret agreement signed with France in 1902 sharply conflicted with Italys membership in the Triple Alliance. Thereafter Salandra and the minister of Foreign Affairs, Sidney Sonnino, pro-interventionist socialists believed that, once that weapons had been distributed to the people, they could have transformed the war into a revolution. The negotiation with the Allies led to the London Pact, signed by Sonnino without the approval of the Italian Parliament, other agreements concerned the sovereignty of the port of Valona, the province of Antalya in Turkey and part of the German colonies in Africa. On 3 May 1915 Italy officially revoked the Triple Alliance, in the following days Giolitti and the neutralist majority of the Parliament opposed declaring war, while nationalist crowds demonstrated in public areas for it. On 23 May, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary and this was followed by declarations of war on the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria and the German Empire. The front on the Austrian border was 650 km long, stretching from the Stelvio Pass to the Adriatic Sea, Italian forces were numerically superior but this advantage was negated by the difficult terrain. Further, the Italians lacked strategic and tactical leadership, the Italian commander-in-chief was Luigi Cadorna, a staunch proponent of the frontal assault whose tactics cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers. His plan was to attack on the Isonzo front, with the dream of breaking over the Karst Plateau into the Carniolan Basin, taking Ljubljana and threatening the Austro-Hungarian Empires capital Vienna. It was a Napoleonic plan, which had no chance of success in an age of barbed wire, machine guns

27.
Italian Fascism
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Italian Fascism, also known simply as Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, as developed in Italy. According to Sternhell “most syndicalist leaders were among the founders of the Fascist movement, ” who, in years, gained key posts in Mussolini’s regime. ”Other historians argued that Fascism billed itself “not only as an alternative. This economic system intended to resolve conflict through collaboration between the classes. It was opposed to Marxist socialism because of its opposition to nationalism. It believed the success of Italian nationalism required respect for tradition, the National Fascist Party founded in 1921, declared that the party was to serve as a revolutionary militia placed at the service of the nation. It follows a policy based on three principles, order, discipline, hierarchy, Mussolini often referred to Fascist Italy during World War II as the proletarian nations that rise up against the plutocrats. It identifies modern Italy as the heir to the Roman Empire and Italy during the Renaissance, Italian Fascism historically sought to forge a strong Italian Empire as a Third Rome, identifying ancient Rome as the First Rome, and Renaissance-era Italy as the Second Rome. Italian Fascism has directly promoted imperialism, such as within the Doctrine of Fascism, ghostwritten by Giovanni Gentile on behalf of Mussolini, The Fascist state is a will to power, the Roman tradition is here a powerful force. According to the Doctrine of Fascism, an empire is not only a territorial or military or mercantile concept, but a spiritual and moral one. One can think of an empire, that is, a nation, Fascism sought the incorporation of claimed unredeemed territories to Italy. Mussolini identified Dalmatia as having strong Italian cultural roots for centuries via the Roman Empire, the Fascist regime imposed mandatory Italianization upon the German and South Slav populations living within Italys borders. This resulted in significant violence against South Slavs deemed to be resisting Italianization, the Fascist regime endorsed Albanian irredentism, directed against the predominantly Albanian-populated Kosovo and Epirus - particularly in Chameria inhabited by a substantial number of Albanians. The Fascist regime claimed the Ionian Islands as Italian territory, on the basis that the islands had belonged to the Venetian Republic from the mid-14th until the 18th century. To the west of Italy, the Fascists claimed that the territories of Corsica, Nice, as a result, Piedmont-Sardinia was pressured to concede Nice and Savoy to France in exchange for France accepting the unification of Italy. The Fascist regime produced literature on Corsica that presented evidence of the Italianità of the island, the Fascist regime produced literature on Nice that justified that Nice was an Italian land based on historic, ethnic, and linguistic grounds. The Fascists quoted Medieval Italian scholar Petrarch who said The border of Italy is the Var, to the north of Italy, the Fascist regime in the 1930s had designs on the largely Italian-populated region of Ticino and the Romansch-populated region of Graubünden in Switzerland. In November 1938, Mussolini declared to the Grand Fascist Council, the Fascist regime accused the Swiss government of oppressing the Romansch people in Graubünden. Mussolini argued that Romansch was an Italian dialect and thus Graubünden should be incorporated into Italy, Ticino was also claimed because the region had belonged to the Duchy of Milan from the mid-fourteenth century until 1515

28.
Italian Empire
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The Italian Empire comprised the colonies, protectorates, concessions, dependencies and trust territories of the Kingdom of Italy and, after 1946, the Italian Republic. The genesis of the Italian colonial empire was the purchase, in 1869 and this was taken over by the Italian government in 1882, becoming Italys first overseas territory. Over the next two decades the pace of European acquisitions in Africa increased, causing the so-called Scramble for Africa. By the start of the First World War in 1914, Italy had acquired in Africa alone a colony on the Red Sea coast, outside of Africa, Italy possessed a small concession in Tientsin in China and the Dodecanese Islands off the coast of Turkey. During the First World War, Italy occupied southern Albania to prevent it falling to Austria-Hungary. In 1917, it established a protectorate over Albania, which remained in place until 1920, the Fascist government that came to power with Benito Mussolini in 1922 sought to increase the size of the Italian empire and to satisfy the claims of Italian irredentists. In 1935–36, in its invasion of Ethiopia Italy was successful. In 1939, Italy invaded Albania and incorporated it into the Fascist state and it was forced in the final peace to relinquish sovereignty over all its colonies. It was granted a United Nations trust to administer former Italian Somaliland in 1950 under United Nations supervision, when Somalia became independent in 1960, Italys eight-decade experience with colonialism ended. The unification of Italy brought with it a belief that Italy deserved its own empire, alongside those of the other powers of Europe. Italy had long considered the Ottoman province of Tunisia, where a community of Tunisian Italians lived. It did not consider annexing it until 1879, when it became apparent that Britain, Italys search for colonies continued until February 1886, when, by secret agreement with Britain, it annexed the port of Massawa in Eritrea on the Red Sea from the crumbling Egyptian Empire. Italian annexation of Massawa denied the Ethiopian Empire of Yohannes IV an outlet to the sea, at the same time, Italy occupied territory on the south side of the horn of Africa, forming what would become Italian Somaliland. However, Italy coveted Ethiopia itself and, in 1887, Italian Prime Minister Agostino Depretis ordered an invasion and this invasion was halted after the loss of five hundred Italian troops at the Battle of Dogali. Depretiss successor, Prime Minister Francesco Crispi signed the Treaty of Wuchale in 1889 with Menelik II, the new emperor. This treaty ceded Ethiopian territory around Massawa to Italy to form the colony of Eritrea, Relations between Italy and Menelik deteriorated over the next few years until the First Italo-Ethiopian War broke out in 1895, when Crispi ordered Italian troops into the country. Outnumbered and poorly equipped, the result was a defeat for Italy at the hands of Ethiopian forces at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. On 7 September 1901, a concession in Tientsin was ceded to the Kingdom of Italy by Imperial China and it was administered by the Italian consul in Tientsin

29.
Italian Social Republic
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The Italian Social Republic, informally known as the Republic of Salò, was a state with limited recognition that was created during the later part of World War II, existing from 1943 until 1945. Mussolini had originally intended to call his new republic the “Italian ‘Socialist’ Republic. ”It was the second and last incarnation of the Fascist Italian state and was led by Duce Benito Mussolini and his reformed Republican Fascist Party. The state declared Rome its capital, but was de facto centered on Salò, a town on Lake Garda, near Brescia, where Mussolini. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern and central Italy, but was dependent on German troops to maintain control. The new government began peace negotiations with the Allied powers. When the Armistice of Cassibile was announced in September, Germany was prepared, Germany seized control of the northern half of Italy, freed Mussolini and brought him to the German-occupied area to establish a satellite regime. The RSI was proclaimed on 23 September 1943, although the RSI claimed most of the lands of Italy as rightfully belonging to it, it held political control over a vastly reduced portion of Italy. The RSI received diplomatic recognition from only Germany, Japan and their puppet states, around 25 April 1945, Mussolinis republic came to an end. In Italy, this day is known as Liberation Day, on this day a general partisan uprising alongside the efforts of Allied forces, during their final offensive in Italy, managed to oust the Germans from Italy almost entirely. At the point of its demise, the Italian Social Republic had existed for more than nineteen months. On 27 April partisans caught Mussolini, his mistress, several RSI ministers, on 28 April the partisans shot Mussolini and most of the other captives. The RSI Minister of Defense, Rodolfo Graziani, surrendered what was left of the RSI on 2 May when the German forces in Italy capitulated, this put a definitive end to the Italian Social Republic. On 24 July 1943, after the Allied landings in Sicily, the next day, King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini from office and ordered him arrested. The failed war effort left Mussolini humiliated at home and abroad as a sawdust Caesar, the new government, under Marshal Pietro Badoglio, began secret negotiations with the Allied powers and made preparations for the capitulation of Italy. These surrender talks implied a commitment from Badoglio not only to leave the Axis alliance, while the Germans formally recognised the new status quo in Italian politics, they intervened by sending some of the best units of the Wehrmacht to Italy. This was done both to resist new Allied advances and to face the predictably imminent defection of Italy, on 8 September, Badoglio announced Italys armistice with the Allies. German Führer Adolf Hitler and his staff, long aware of the negotiations, acted immediately by ordering German troops to control of northern. The Germans disarmed the Italian troops and took all of the Italian Armys materials

30.
History of the Italian Republic
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This situation changed due to an external shock – the crisis and Dissolution of the Soviet Union – and an internal one – the Tangentopoli corruption scandal and operation Mani pulite. Although ousted after a few months of government, Berlusconi became one of Italys most important political and economic figures for the next two decades. After leading the Opposition to the Dini, Prodi I, DAlema I, DAlema II and he eventually lost the 2006 general election five years later to Romano Prodi and his Union coalition but won the 2008 general election and returned to power in June 2008. In November 2011, Berlusconi lost his majority in the Chamber of Deputies and his successor, Mario Monti formed a new government, composed by technicians and supported by both the center-left and the center-right parties. After the 2013 election resulted in a parliament, in April the Vice-Secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta. On 22 February 2014, after tensions in the Democratic Party, mussolini was killed by resistance fighters in April 1945. Victor Emmanuel formally abdicated on 9 May 1946, his son king as Umberto II of Italy. A Constitutional Referendum was held on 2 June 1946, republicans won, and the monarchy was abolished. The Kingdom of Italy was no more, the House of Savoy, the Italian royal family, was exiled. Victor Emmanuel left for Egypt where he died in 1947, Umberto, who had been king for only a month, moved to Portugal. A Constituent Assembly was in place between June 1946 and January 1948, it wrote the new Constitution of Italy which took effect on January 1,1948, the Peace Treaty between Italy and the Allies of World War II was signed in Paris in February 1947. The PSI and the PCI received some posts in a Christian Democrat–led coalition cabinet. PCI’s leader Palmiro Togliatti was minister of Justice, since the PSI and the PCI together received more votes than the Christian Democrats, they decided to unite in 1948 to form the Popular Democratic Front. The 1948 general elections were influenced by the then flaring cold-war confrontation between the Soviet Union and the US. In response, on March 1948 the United States National Security Council issued its first document proffering recommendations to avoid such an outcome which were widely and energetically implemented, ten million letters were sent by mostly Italian Americans urging Italians not to vote communist. US agencies made numerous short-wave propaganda radio broadcasts and funded the publishing of books and articles, the CIA also funded the centre-right political parties and was accused of publishing forged letters in order to discredit the leaders of the PCI. The PCI itself was accused of being funded by Moscow and the Cominform, for almost four decades, Italian elections were successively won by the Democrazia Cristiana centrist party. Italy also lost its colonial Empire, except Somalia, which formed the object of a UN trusteeship mandate, in the same years, Italy also became a founding member of the ECSC and of the European Economic Community, later developed into the European Union

31.
Years of Lead (Italy)
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The left-wing autonomist Marxist movement in Italy which was involved in many events of the period lasted from 1968 until the end of the 1970s. There was widespread social conflict and unprecedented acts of terrorism carried out by both right- and left-wing paramilitary groups, an attempt to endorse the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement by the Tambroni Cabinet led to rioting and was short-lived. The Christian Democrats were instrumental in the Italian Socialist Party gaining power in the 1960s, the assassination of the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro in 1978 ended the strategy of historic compromise between the DC and the Italian Communist Party. The assassination was carried out by the Red Brigades, then led by Mario Moretti, between 1969 and 1981, nearly 2,000 murders were attributed to political violence in the form of bombings, assassinations, and street warfare between rival militant factions. Public protests shook Italy during 1969, with the autonomist student movement being particularly active, on 19 November 1969, Antonio Annarumma, a Milanese policeman, was killed during a riot by far-left demonstrators. He was the first civil servant to die in the wave of violence, the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Rome and the Banca Commerciale Italiana and the Banca Nazionale dellAgricoltura in Milan were bombed in December. Local police arrested 80 or so suspects from left-wing groups, including Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist initially blamed for the bombing, and Pietro Valpreda. Their guilt was denied by left-wing members, especially by members of the student movement, then prominent in Milans universities, as they believed that the bombing was carried out by fascists. In 1975 Calabresi and other officials were acquitted by judge Gerardo DAmbrosio who decided that Pinellis fall had been caused by his being taken ill. Meanwhile, the anarchist Valpreda and five others were convicted and jailed for the bombing and they were later released after three years of preventive detention. Then, two neo-fascists, Franco Freda and Giovanni Ventura, were arrested accused of being the organizers of the massacre, in the 1990s, new investigations into the Piazza Fontana bombing, citing new witnesses testimony, implicated Freda and Ventura again. However, the pair cannot be put on again because of double jeopardy. The Red Brigades, the most prominent far-left terrorist organization, conducted an internal investigation that paralleled the official inquiry. They ordered that the inquiry remain secret, because of the light that it could shed on other terrorist organizations. The inquiry was discovered after a shootout between the Red Brigade and the Carabinieri at Robbiano di Mediglia in October 1974, the cover-up was exposed in 2000 by Giovanni Pellegrino, at the time President of the Commissione Stragi. The Red Brigades were founded in August 1970 by Renato Curcio and Margherita Cagol, who had met as students at the University of Trento and later married, and Alberto Franceschini. The first action of the RB was burning the car of Giuseppe Leoni on 17 September 1970, the Black Prince, Junio Valerio Borghese, took part in it. The coup, called off at the last moment, was discovered by the newspaper Paese Sera, on March 26, Alessandro Floris was assassinated in Genoa by a unit of the October 22 Group, a far-left terrorist organization

32.
History of coins in Italy
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Italy has a long history of different coinage types, which spans thousands of years. Italy has been influential at a point of view, the florin. Today, Italy adopts the euro currency, spite the fact that the first Italian coinage systems were used in the Magna Graecia and Etruscan civilization, the Romans introduced a widespread currency. Unlike most modern coins, Roman coins had intrinsic value, while they contained precious metals, the value of a coin was higher than its precious metal content, so they were not bullion. Estimates of their range from 1.6 to 2. The florin was struck from 1252 to 1523 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard and it had 54 grains of gold. The fiorino doro of the Republic of Florence was the first European gold coin struck in sufficient quantities to play a significant commercial role since the seventh century. In the fourteenth century, one hundred and fifty European states, the most important of these was the Hungarian forint because the Kingdom of Hungary was a major source of gold mined in Europe. The early modern Italian coins were similar in style to French francs, especially in decimals. They corresponded to a value of 0.29 of gold or 4.5 grams of silver, the Papal States scudo was the coinage system used in the Papal States until 1866. Between 1798 and 1799, the revolutionary French forces established the Roman Republic, in addition, the states of Ancona, Civitavecchia, Clitunno, Foligno, Gubbio, Pergola and Perugia changed their coinage system to that of the Roman Republic. In 1808, the Papal States were annexed by France, when the Popes authority was restored in 1814, the scudo was restored as the currency. However, the coinage of the states was not resumed. In 1849, another Roman Republic was established which issued coins centrally, in 1866, the scudo was replaced by the lira, equivalent to the Italian lira. The exchange rate used was 5.375 lire =1 scudo, the Parman lira was Parmas official currency before 1802, and later revived from 1815 to 1859. The Duchy of Parma had its own system until it was made a part of France in 1802. This lira was subdivided into 20 soldi, each of 12 denari, with the sesino worth 6 denari, the currency was replaced by the French franc. After the re-establishment of Parman independence, the Parman currency system was introduced in 1815, also called the lira, it was subdivided into 20 soldi or 100 centesimi

33.
Economic history of Italy
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A series of tables showing different Italian economic sectors, GDP growth. The Italian Renaissance was remarkable in economic development, venice and Genoa were the economic pioneers. Reasons for their development are for example the relative military safety of Venetian lagoons, the high population density. During the 17th and 18th centuries Italy experienced a decline in relative economic standing, military conflicts, political fractionalization, limited fiscal capacity and the shift of world trade to north-western Europe are factors which slowed down Italian development. The breakdown of feudalism, however, and redistribution of land did not necessarily lead to small farmers in the winding up with land of their own or land they could work. Many remained landless, and plots grew smaller and smaller and thus more and more unproductive as land was subdivided among heirs, the Italian diaspora did not affect all regions of the nation equally, principally low income agricultural areas with a high proportion of small peasant land holdings. In the second phase of emigration most emigrants were from the south and most of them were from rural areas, driven off the land by inefficient land management policies. Robert Foerster, in Italian Emigration of our Times says, …well nigh expulsion, it has been exodus, in the sense of depopulation, although owning land was the basic yardstick of wealth, farming in the south was socially despised. People did not invest in agricultural equipment but in things as low-risk state bonds. Italy had emerged from World War I in a poor and weakened condition, the National Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922, at the end of a period of social unrest. However, once Mussolini acquired a firmer hold of power, in 1929, Italy was hit hard by the Great Depression. Trying to handle the crisis, the Fascist government nationalized the holdings of large banks which had accrued significant industrial securities, a number of mixed entities were formed, whose purpose it was to bring together representatives of the government and of the major businesses. These representatives discussed economic policy and manipulated prices and wages so as to both the wishes of the government and the wishes of business. This economic model based on a partnership between government and business was extended to the political sphere, in what came to be known as corporatism. Throughout the 1930s, the Italian economy maintained the corporatist model that had established during the Great Depression. At the same time, however, Mussolini had growing ambitions of extending Italys foreign influence through both diplomacy and military intervention and these foreign interventions required increased military spending, and the Italian economy became increasingly subordinated to the needs of its armed forces. By 1939, Italy had the highest percentage of state-owned enterprises after the Soviet Union, finally, Italys involvement in World War II as a member of the Axis powers required the establishment of a war economy. The Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 caused the Italian political structure —, the Allies, on the one hand, and the Germans on the other, took over the administration of the areas of Italy under their control

34.
History of Italian fashion
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The history of Italian fashion is the important events and occasions which marked Italian fashion and how it evolved to being as it is today. Italian fashion reached its peak during the Renaissance, Art, music, education, finance and philosophy flourished in Italy, and along with these, Italian fashion designs became immensely popular, especially those worn by the Medicis in Florence. The fashions of Queen Catherine de Medici of France were considered amongst the most fashionable in Europe, Italian fashion in the 15th and 16th centuries was mainly influenced by the art of the time, especially by the masterpieces of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Botticelli. Italian designs were known for their extravagance, and their expensive accessories, such as velvets, brocades, ribbons. Also, Italian fashion for ladies changed dramatically around 1460, where skirts were gathered or pleated, and would often be split at the front and the sides to show a sleeved underdress. During the Italian Renaissance, men wore closely fitted waistcoats underneath pleated overcoats called giornea and they wore different kinds of hats, ranging from caps to berets. They also had an overcoat called cioppa and its lining was of a different colour than the main fabric which was a feature of the Italian Renaissance. They also wore hose or tights to emphasize their lower bodies, as hair styles, anything from short to shoulder-length hair was common, it was often curled inwards. Womens dress consisted of fitted garments worn underneath a dress which was also called giornea. Unlike the mens version, the reached the ground and covered their feet. Womens giorneas, originally evolved from the houppelande, had separate skirts, the skirts were tight at the waist and the lower part of the dress was often pleated. They were cut at the front, and in years at the sides. Underneath the giornea women wore a dress called gamurra, which was a long dress which could have detachable sleeves. The underdress worn underneath this was a simple linen dress called camicia, men and women would wear outer clothes with detachable, and often slashed, sleeves of varied designs. Rich people would own many different pairs of sleeves to match with their overcoats, the Renaissance was a turning point for peoples attitude regarding clothes and their appearance. People had a desire to wear tighter fitted clothes to emphasize body shape, merchants expanded the market for items of clothing, creating accessories such as hats, hairnets, bags, or gloves. The spread of mirrors led to becoming more interested in their self-image. Lenza, Leather chord worn around the head, it served the function of keeping hair flat, trinzale, Sheer sort of hair-net worn at the back of the head, sometimes it was beaded

35.
Genetic history of Italy
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The genetic history of the Italians is greatly influenced by the geography and history. In their admixture ratios all Italians are similar to other Southern Europeans, the only exception are certain northeastern Italian populations who cluster with Germanic and Slavic speaking Central Europeans. Molecular anthropology found no evidence of significant Northern geneflow into the Italian peninsula over the last 1500 years, on the other hand, the bulk of Italian ethnogenesis occurred prior to Germanic or non European invasions. Geneticists agree that no other than the Greek settlement in Southern Italy and Sicily had any substantial biological impact on Italians. Modern man appeared during the Upper Paleolithic, specimens of Aurignacian age were discovered in the cave of Fumane and dated back about 34,000 years ago. During the Magdalenian period the first men from the Pyrenees populated Sardinia, during the Neolithic farming was introduced by people from the east and the first villages were built, weapons became more sophisticated and the first objects in clay were produced. In the late Neolithic era the use of spread and villages were built over piles near lakes. In Sardinia, Sicily and part of Mainland Italy the Beaker culture spread from Western Europe, in Sardinia the Nuragic civilization flourished. From the 8th century BC, Greek colonists settled on the southern coast and in Sicily and founded cities, the Etruscan civilization developed on the coast of Tuscany and Latium. In the 5th century Celtic tribes from continental Europe settled in Northern Italy, with the fall of the Western Roman Empire, different populations of German origin invaded Italy, the most significant being the Lombards, who tried to politically unify the Boot of Italy. The majority of Italians, Sicilians and Corsicans belong to Haplogroup R1b, common in Western, the highest frequency of R1b is found in Garfagnana, Tuscany. This percentage lowers at the south of Italy in Sicily. On the other hand, the majority of Sardinians belong to Mesolotich European haplogroup I2a1a, the results supported a distribution of genetic variation along a North-South Axis and supported demic diffusion. South Italian samples clustered with South east and south central European samples, a 2004 study by Semino et al. contradicted this study, and showed that Italians in North-central regions had a higher concentration of J2 than their Southern counterparts. North-central had 26. 9% J2, whereas Calabria had 20. 0%, Sardinia had 9. 7%, the so-called barbarian migrations that occurred on Italian soil following the fall of the Western Roman Empire have probably not significantly altered the gene pool of the Italian people. In two villages in Lazio I1 was recorded at levels 35% and 28%, in Sicily, further migrations from the Vandals, Normans and Saracens have only slightly affected the ethnic composition of the Sicilian people. However, Greek genetic legacy is estimated at 37% in Sicily. g, the Norman Kingdom of Sicily was created in 1130, with Palermo as capital, and would last until the 19th century. Nowadays it is in north-west Sicily, around Palermo and Trapani, in the thirteenth century Frederick II turned against the Muslims in Sicily and between 1221 and 1226 he moved all to the city of Lucera in Puglia

36.
Military history of Italy
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The military history of Italy chronicles a vast time period, lasting from the overthrow of Tarquinius Superbus in 509 BC, through the Roman Empire, Italian unification, and into the modern day. The Etruscans were settled north of Rome in Etruria and they founded cities like Tarquinia, Veii and Volterra and deeply influenced Roman culture, as clearly shown by the Etruscan origin of some of the mythical Roman kings. The origins of the Etruscans are lost in prehistory, historians have no literature, no texts of religion or philosophy, therefore much of what is known about this civilization is derived from grave goods and tomb findings. The Italics were war-like as the Etruscans, the Italics and the Etruscans had a significant military tradition. In addition to marking the rank and power of individuals in their culture, warfare was a considerable economic boon to their civilization. It is also likely individuals taken in battle would be ransomed back to their families, the Greeks had founded many colonies in Southern Italy, such as Cumae, Naples and Taranto, as well as in the eastern two-thirds of Sicily, between 750 and 550 BC. After 650 BC, the Etruscans became dominant in central Italy, the early Roman army was, like those of other contemporary city-states influenced by Greek civilization, a citizen militia which practiced hoplite tactics. It was small and organized in five classes, with three providing hoplites and two providing light infantry, the early Roman army was tactically limited and its stance during this period was essentially defensive. Thirty maniples arranged in three lines with supporting troops constituted a legion, totaling between 4,000 and 5,000 men, with the new organization came a new orientation toward the offensive and a much more aggressive posture toward adjoining city-states. Legions were often significantly understrength from recruitment failures or following periods of service due to accidents, battle casualties, disease. This pattern also held true for auxiliary forces, harris suggests that down to 200 BC, the average rural farmer might participate in six or seven campaigns. Freedmen and slaves and urban citizens did not serve except in rare emergencies, after 200 BC, economic conditions in rural areas deteriorated as manpower needs increased, so that the property qualifications for service were gradually reduced. Terms of service became continuous and long—up to twenty years if emergencies required it although Brunt argues that six or seven years was more typical, cavalry and light infantry attached to a legion were often recruited in the areas where the legion served. Caesar formed a legion, the Fifth Alaudae, from non-citizens in Transalpine Gaul to serve in his campaigns in Gaul, by the time of Caesar Augustus, the ideal of the citizen-soldier had been abandoned and the legions had become fully professional. Legionaries were paid 900 sesterces a year and could expect a payment of 12,000 sesterces on retirement, at the end of the Civil War, Augustus reorganized Roman military forces, discharging soldiers and disbanding legions. He retained 28 legions, distributed through the provinces of the Empire, during the Principate, the tactical organization of the Army continued to evolve. The auxilia remained independent cohorts, and legionary troops often operated as groups of cohorts rather than as full legions and this increase in organizational flexibility over time helped ensure the long-term success of Roman military forces. The Emperor Gallienus began a reorganization that created the military structure of the late Empire

37.
Music history of Italy
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The modern state of Italy did not come into being until 1861, though the roots of music on the Italian Peninsula can be traced back to the music of Ancient Rome. However, the underpinnings of much modern Italian music come from the Middle Ages, Italy was the site of several key musical developments in the development of the Christian liturgies in the West. Around 230, well before Christianity was legalized, the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus attested the singing of Psalms with refrains of Alleluia in Rome. In 386, in imitation of Eastern models, St. Ambrose wrote hymns, some of whose texts still survive, later, around 530, St. Benedict would arrange the weekly order of monastic psalmody in his Rule. Later, in the 6th century, Venantius Fortunatus created some of Christianitys most enduring hymns, including Vexilla regis prodeunt, which would later become the most popular hymn of the Crusades. Although Gregorian chant has its roots in Roman chant and is associated with Rome, it is not indigenous to Italy. Gregorian chant, which supplanted the indigenous Old Roman and Beneventan traditions, Gregorian chant later came to be strongly identified with Rome, especially as musical elements from the north were added to the Roman Rite, such as the Credo in 1014. This was part of a general trend wherein the manuscript tradition in Italy weakened, Gregorian chant supplanted all the other Western plainchant traditions, Italian and non-Italian, except for Ambrosian chant, which survives to this day. Crucial in the transmission of chant were the innovations of Guido dArezzo, whose Micrologus, written around 1020, described the musical staff, solmization, and this early form of do-re-mi created a technical revolution in the speed at which chants could be learned, memorized, and recorded. Even as the northern chant traditions were displacing indigenous Italian chant, the Albigensian Crusade, supposedly to attack Cathar heretics, brought southern France under northern French control and crushed Occitan culture and language. Most troubadours fled, especially to Spain and Italy, Italy developed its own counterparts to troubadours, called trovatori, including Sordello of Mantua. Italian secular music was largely the province of these jongleurs, troubadors, also around this time, Italian flagellants developed the Italian folk hymns known as spiritual laude. The early madrigal was simpler than the more well-known later madrigals, the caccia was often in three-part harmony, with the top two lines set to words in musical canon. The early ballata was often a poem in the form of a set to a monophonic melody. The Rossi Codex included music by Jacopo da Bologna, the first famous Trecento composer. The Ivrea Codex, dated around 1360, and the Squarcialupi Codex, dated around 1410, were sources of late Trecento music, including the music of Francesco Landini. Landinis name was attached to his characteristic Landini cadence, in which the note of the melody dips down two notes before returning, such as C-B-A-C. Trecento music influenced northern musicians such as Johannes Ciconia, whose synthesis of the French, during the 15th century, Italy entered a slow period in native composition, with the exception of a few bright lights such as the performer and anthologist Leonardo Giustinian

38.
Postage stamps and postal history of Italy
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This is an introduction to the postal and philatelic history of Italy. As Italy was not unified until 1861, its postal history is tied to the various kingdoms. The Cavallini of Sardinia was a private mail service, notable for the introduction of prepaid stamped lettersheets in 1819. The reform became law in November, and went into effect 1 January 1851, after some casting around for expertise in the newfangled art of stamp printing, the government settled on the house of Francesco Matraire in Turin. Matraire produced stamps with a profile of Victor Emmanuel II. Other states in Italy also issued stamps during the 1850s, Modena, Naples, the Papal States, Parma, Romagna, Sicily, matraires stamps were reprinted several times, and those printed after 17 March 1861 are normally considered the first stamps of Italy. Perforated stamps began in 1862 and, starting on 1 January 1863, in 1862 Count Ambjörn Sparre won the stamp contract, but his designs were not liked, and he seemed unable to produce the stamps. In danger of running out of stamps altogether, at the end of 1862 the Italian government once again turned to Matraire, who quickly produced a 15c value by lithography. Sparres contract was cancelled in March 1863, and a new contract let to the British printer De La Rue and they continued in use until the end of 1889. Italy joined the Universal Postal Union on 1 July 1875, humbert succeeded his father in 1878, which necessitated a new issue of stamps. First appearing on 15 August 1879, they were the first stamps of the kingdom to be designed, engraved. The new series incorporated rates and colors mandated by the Universal Postal Union, the worlds first official airmail stamps were issued in 1917 when Poste italiane overprinted their existing special delivery stamps. In 2007, the issue of an Italian stamp featuring the Croatian city of Rijeka caused a controversy, the stamp referred to the city in its usual Italian name of Fiume, claiming it was former Italian territory. This is seen as offensive in Croatia, revenue stamps of Italy References Sources Dehn, Roy A. Italian Stamps, a Handbook for Collectors, encyclopaedia of Postal Authorities Rossiter, Stuart & John Flower. ISBN 0-356-10862-7 Tony Claytons Stamps of Italy and Italian Colonies

39.
History of rail transport in Italy
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The Italian railway system is one of the most important parts of the infrastructure of Italy, with a total length of 24,227 km. Railways were introduced in Italy when it was still a divided country, on request of the Milanese and Venetian industries, but also for the already clear military importance, construction of the Milan–Venice line was begun. In 1842 the Padua-Mestre stretch of 32 km was inaugurated, followed in 1846 by the Milan-Treviglio and Padua-Vicenza, in the Kingdom of Sardinia, King Charles Albert ordered on July 18,1844 the construction of the Turin–Genoa railway, which was inaugurated on December 6,1853. This was followed by the opening of sections which connected with France, Switzerland. A locomotive factory was founded in Genoa, in order to avoid the English monopoly in the field. In Tuscany, the Duke of Lucca signed the concession for the a Lucca–Pisa railway, while, in 1845, at the creation of the unified Kingdom of Italy, railroads in the country were the following, for a total of 2,064 km active railroads. Lines in the Papal States were still in construction, while Sicily had its first, the existing lines did not form an organized net, property of the line was statal or private, the latter in turn for private or statal use. A first organic structure began to be created in 1865 with the connections of the existing sections, in 1870 the last remnant of Papal States was also annexed to Italy, it comprised the railway connection from Rome to Frascati, Civitavecchia, Terni and Cassino. In 1872 there were in Italy about 7,000 km of railroads, entrusted to the companies in the following shares. In 1875 a proposal of the Italian government to form a company out of the existing concessionaires was refused by the Italian Parliament. This, among the other benefit, granted the fulfillment of social exigences in transportation, the Italian government was however slow to react, and only in 1878 and 1880, respectively, the largely deficitaire SFAI and SFR went under state administration. Despite this situation, in 1884 the Italian Parliament issued a study in which it was declared preferable a private administration of railways. The Convenzioni between Italy and the three main remaining private companies were signed on April 23,1884, for a period of 60 years. However, this not only failed to improve the situation of railways, hampering the economic development and tourism as well. Liabilities of the secondary lines greatly exceeded the profits from the few remaining ones, by the 1880s the Italian railways amounted to 10,510 km. The move was completed the year with the acquisition of the remaining SFM network, by then FS possessed 13,075 km of lines. A General Director was appointed, the Piedmontese engineer Riccardo Bianchi, a General Direction was created, with 13 Central Services and two General Inspectorates, based in Rome. For peripheral operations, eight Compartmental Directions were created, a capable and respected organizer, he had received a grievous heritage from the previous organizational chaos

40.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

41.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor

42.
Mare Nostrum
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Mare Nostrum was a Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea. In the years following the unification of Italy in 1861, Italian nationalists who saw Italy as the state to the Roman Empire attempted to revive the term. The term mare nostrum originally was used by Romans to refer to the Tyrrhenian Sea, following their conquest of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica during the Punic Wars with Carthage. By 30 BC, Roman domination extended from the Iberian Peninsula to Egypt, other names were also employed, including Mare Internum, however, they did not include Mediterraneum Mare, which was a late Latin creation only attested to well after the Fall of Rome. The rise of Italian nationalism during the Scramble for Africa of the 1880s led to calls for the establishment of an Italian colonial empire, the phrase was first revived by the Italian poet Gabriele dAnnunzio. Even if the coast of Tripoli were a desert, even if it would not support one peasant or one Italian business firm, the term was again taken up by Benito Mussolini for use in fascist propaganda, in a similar manner to Adolf Hitlers lebensraum. Mussolini wanted to re-establish the greatness of the Roman Empire and believed that Italy was the most powerful of the Mediterranean countries after World War I. He declared that the century will be a century of Italian power. When World War II started Italy was already a major Mediterranean power that controlled the north and south shores of the central basin, the invasions of Albania, Greece and Egypt, and the Siege of Malta sought to extend Axis control over the Sea. He referred to making the Mediterranean Sea an Italian lake and this aim, however, was challenged throughout the campaign by the Allied navies at sea and the Allied armies and resistance movements on land. Despite periods of Axis ascendancy during the Battle of the Mediterranean it was never realized, in this contemporary usage, the term is intended to embrace the full diversity of Mediterranean cultures, with a particular focus on exchanges and cooperation among Mediterranean nations. Nine-dotted line Baltic sea Lowe, C. J, talbert, R. M. E. Downs, M. Joann McDaniel, B. Z. Lund, T. Elliott, S. Gillies. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list

43.
Pacification of Libya
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The pacification resulted in mass deaths of the indigenous people in Cyrenaica - one quarter of Cyrenaicas population of 225,000 people died during the conflict. Italy had been in near-constant conflict with the Senussis since Italy seized control of Libya from the Ottoman Empire, warfare between the British versus the Senussis continued until 1917 when the Senussis made peace with the British. In 1917, Italy signed the Treaty of Acroma that acknowledged effective virtual independence of Libya from direct Italian control, in 1918, Tripolitanian rebels founded the Tripolitanian Republic. In 1922 Tripolitanian leaders offered Idris the position of Emir of Tripolitania, however prior to Idris being able to accept the position, the Italian government decided to initiate a campaign of reconquest of Libya. The rise to power of Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister of Italy, however attempts by Italian forces to occupy the forest hills of Jebel Akhtar were met with popular guerrilla resistance. This resistance was led by Senussi sheikh Omar Mukhtar, by doing this, the Italians cut off the physical connection formerly held by the rebels between Cyrenaica and Tripolitania. By late 1928, the Italians took control of Ghibla and its tribes were disarmed, attempted negotiations between Italy and Omar Mukhtar broke down and Italy then planned for the complete conquest of Libya from the rebels. In 1930, Italian forces conquered Fezzan and rose the Italian flag in Tummo, the camps held only rudimentary medical services, with the camps of Soluch and Sisi Ahmed el Magrun with 33,000 internees each having only one doctor between them. Typhus and other diseases spread rapidly in the camps as the people were physically weakened by meagre food rations provided to them, by the time the camps closed in September 1933,40,000 of the 100,000 total internees had died in the camps. To close rebel supply routes from Egypt, the Italians constructed a 300-kilometre barbed wire fence on the border with Egypt that was patrolled by armoured cars, in 1931, Italian forces seized Kufra where Senussi refugees were bombed and strafed by Italian aircraft as they fled into the desert. Mukhtar was captured by the Italians in 1931 followed by a court martial, mukhtars death effectively ended the resistance, and in January 1932, Badoglio proclaimed the end of the Pacification of Libya

44.
Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War
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The Spanish Civil War had large numbers of non-Spanish citizens participating in combat and advisory positions. The governments of Germany, Italy—and to a lesser extent Portugal—contributed money, munitions, manpower, the government of the Soviet Union, and to a lesser extent France and Mexico, likewise aided the Republicans of the Second Spanish Republic. The aid came even after all the European powers had signed a Non-Intervention Agreement in 1936, while individual sympathy for the plight of the Spanish Republic was widespread in the liberal democracies, pacifism and the fear of another world war prevented them from selling or giving arms. The Nationalist pleas meanwhile were answered within days by Hitler and Prigg, non-intervention had been proposed in a joint diplomatic initiative by the governments of France and the United Kingdom, responding to antiwar sentiment. France was also worried that the war in Spain might spread to France. It was part of an aimed at preventing a proxy war. On 3 August 1936, Charles de Chambrun presented the French governments non-intervention plan, the British, however, accepted the plan in principle immediately. The following day, it was put to Nazi Germany by André François-Poncet, the German position was that such a declaration was not needed. A similar approach was made to the Soviet Union, on 6 August, Ciano confirmed Italian support in principle. The Soviet government similarly agreed in principle, so long as Portugal was included, on 7 August, France unilaterally declared non-intervention. Draft declarations had been put to German and Italian governments, such a declaration had already been accepted by the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, renouncing all traffic in war materiel, direct or indirect. The Portuguese Foreign Minister, Armindo Monteiro, was asked to accept. On 9 August, French exports were suspended, Portugal accepted the pact on 13 August, unless her border was threatened by the war. On 15 August, the United Kingdom banned exports of war materiel to Spain, Italy agreed to the pact, signing on 21 August. Although a surprising reversal of views, it has put down to the growing belief that countries could not abide by the agreement anyway. The Soviet Union was keen not to be left out and it was at this point that the Non-Intervention Committee was created to uphold the agreement, but the double-dealing of the USSR and Germany had already become apparent. The ostensible purpose of the committee was to prevent personnel and matériel reaching the warring parties of the Spanish Civil War, the Committee first met in London on 9 September 1936. It was chaired by the British W. S. Morrison, Charles Corbin represented the French, Italy by Dino Grandi, and the Soviets by Ivan Maisky

The early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era. Although the …

Cishou Temple Pagoda, built in 1576: the Chinese believed that building pagodas on certain sites according to geomantic principles brought about auspicious events; merchant-funding for such projects was needed by the late Ming period.

PoglavnikAnte Pavelic (left) with Italy's DuceBenito Mussolini (right) in Rome, Italy on 18 May 1941, during the ceremony of Italy's recognition of Croatia as a sovereign state under official Italian protection, and to agree upon Croatia's borders with Italy.